Hello folks,
I had some breakfast at the hotel this morning and didn't hit the road until 8:30. I only had one thing on my schedule for today and that was Badlands National Park which was 117 miles away. I got to the park at 10:30 on a beautiful clear morning.
Badlands National Park is in southwestern South Dakota. Its dramatic landscapes span layered rock formations, steep canyons and towering spires. Bison, bighorn sheep and prairie dogs inhabit its sprawling grasslands.
The park protects 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles, along with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States.
I really enjoyed my visit to the park. It was a lot more scenic than I expected.
The picture below is of Big Foot Pass in the park.
There are several big horn sheep in the picture below. Can you find them all?
The answer is 5. There is a baby on top of a rock near the center. His mama is in the lower right corner. There are three together at the top right. Below is a closer look at the ones on top of the butte. There must have been about a dozen of them up there. They kept coming in and out of view.
After I finished driving the park loop road it was an eight mile drive to the metropolis of Wall, South Dakota. Anyone who has traveled Interstate 90 through South Dakota has probably stopped in this town. Why? To visit the Wall Drug Store. They have about a million billboards on the Interstate advertising the place. They extend out for over a hundred miles. I of course stopped and explored the sprawling complex.
Below is one of Wall Drugs advertisements out on the interstate.
I am spending the night at the Best Western Plains Motel here in Wall. As I am writing this we are having a thunderstorm. Pea sized hail is falling. I can see blue skies just south of here. Forecast said 0% chance of rain for here today. I guess they were wrong.
I actually backtracked today. Wall is west of Pierre where I stayed last night. Tomorrow I head back east across the state of South Dakota.
Happy trails to you and yours,
Tim
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