Day 6 (Sunday May 17) Badlands

Badlands Beagle!

Breakfast, then a shorter walk on the Michelsen trail (taking it easy on Max since we had 2 long ones yesterday), then off on a day trip to the east to check out Minuteman Missile National HIstoric Site and Badlands National Park. We went out I-90 East, through Wall, SD, home of Wall Drug. I don't know why it's so famous other than the same reason South of the Border, Ron Jon, and Yeehaw Junction are famous: billboards for miles. We went by if only because it was one more stop Chevy Chase made in National Lampoons Vacation. I've had that Holiday Road song stuck in my head since the idea for this trip came up (and of course downloaded it to my ipod and have listened to it every day, I think).



The Minuteman Missile NHS was closed on Sundays, and incredibly hard to find (thanks, google), but it was right on the way to Badlands so it didn't really cost us any wasted time. Badlands National Park is one of those places that really does not come across in pictures, you have to actually be there to experience it. The grassland turns into the Badlands incredibly quickly, and the whole place just leaves you saying "wow" a lot. We drove through pretty much the whole northern unit of the park, including about 20 miles down the unpaved Rim Road. There were more Bison and Prairie Dogs for Max to check out. Other than that, I think he was tired from his two long hikes yesterday so we took it easy, seeing most everything from the car.

We made our way back to Rapid City and down to Mt Rushmore, since we had to see that since it is probably the most well known attraction in the area and we were staying only a couple of miles from it.  It was pretty impressive, but I think we were more entertained another mile or so down the road where we got to watch a mountain goat climb about 40 feet up a sheer cliff because there was a little patch of grass he wanted to eat.   

Picked up some groceries, back to the cabin, dinner, laundry, blogging, packing.  Max is still on East Coast time, so around 7pm here it is doggie bedtime. It occurred to me tonight that this is probably the first time he has been in a different time zone so, while he notices it is light out much later, I'm sure that really means nothing to him.

Tomorrow: North Dakota's Enchanted Highway.