All Ain't Bad in the Badlands

Father's Day was bright and sunny in South Dakota. We had a later than usual start because we took time to plan our "escape" from South Dakota before taking off for our daily adventure. Lunch packed, camera ready, we headed east on I-90. Our first stop was to be Wall Drug. After all, you can't visit South Dakota without a stop at this famous landmark. It would be impossible to miss since the signs started right after we passed Rapid City. Promises of free ice water and 5-cent coffee urged us on.








Some aspects of Wall Drug were not exactly what we expected while others exceeded our expectations. We expected to see one very large building, not a number of small shops that were strung together. And we never dreamed there was that much tourist junk in one spot! Nonetheless, we shopped and walked away with t-shirts and fudge (good fudge, in fact). We found the jackalope but were even more amazed by this non-typical whitetail. Seeing this come toward you in the woods would raise any one's adrenaline.







The Badlands lie south of Wall so we continued on our way to this National Park. This weekend was free entrance for most of the National Parks. We don't know if this increased attendance because the place is so large that we were not crowded. We drove a few miles after the entrance gate and enjoyed the view of sweet yellow clover in bloom. This plant is not native but was introduced with seed and has become well established in the grasslands. It has a wonderful smell but can pose a fire hazard in fall and winter.









Suddenly, we rounded a corner and there it was! Sharp peaks, deep valleys and the most incredible rock formations. There wasn't a lot of color so again the pictures do not do the landscape justice.











We enjoyed many of the different formations on our way to the visitors center. Each mile had something slightly different. Some areas had green valleys and others had a lot of the sweet yellow clover. The rocks themselves did have slight variations in color with bands of reddish rock apparent in some areas.










At the visitors center we watched the short film and then asked where we might find the bighorned sheep that are supposed to be present in the park. The prime spot was actually on our route in and out of the park so that was helpful. And sure enough, when we reached the pinnacles, there they were, feeding along the road. We only saw ewes but that's OK, we did see some bighorn up close. It looks like they were shedding their winter coat and looked pretty shaggy. So with this sighting the only animals left on our "want to see in the wild" list are a wolf and mountain goat. We are pleased to have seen as many animals as we have so the wolf and goat will have to be on the list for the next trip.