After we were finished with Mt. Rushmore, we started the 2 hour drive to the Badlands. On the way to the Badlands, we kept spotting these strange billboard advertising signs sponsored by Wall Drug. Normally, we are the type of people to ignore advertising, but these billboards just dragged us in and we had to stop at this place called Wall Drug. It was the true definition of kitsch. You could buy everything from ice cream to cowboy boots and they even had an animatronic T-Rex. One of the billboards we passed mentioned a T-Rex. Now, for those of you who were kids in the 80's, remember the Yes and Know Trivia Books with the invisible ink, well I found one and bought it and yes, the copyright was still 1986. Anyway, realizing that we had spent over an hour at Wall Drug, we decided to press onward to the Badlands.
We weren't sure what to expect there, but it turned out to be quite an interesting geological area. On one side of the road is grassland, the other is a beautiful vista of rugged small mountain terrain and canyons carved out by the river. The terrain is fragile and erodes about an inch per year. The park also had a prairie dog town and wow, there were lots of them and they were really cute.
We only had enough time to do 2 short hikes and one of them finally took us off the boardwalk. By the time we finished the hike, the sun was setting and we headed back to the hotel.
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