PICTURES: 1) going into our first and only "real motel," 2) Badlands at sunset, 3) enjoying the day in the Badlands, 4) mommy and baby animal watching sunset, 5) some sort of horned creature looking at me, 6) arrival in the Badlands, 7) Mt. Rushmore, 8) me with Mt. Rushmore, and 9) Carmen and me with Mt. Rushmore very far in distance
The next morning, the girls took their much-needed showers and we packed up the tent in a beautiful sun-shiny morning. From there, we drove to the Wind Caves National Park. On the way to the main office where the cave tours started, a heard of buffalo crossed the road right by us and we got some awesome shots of the giant creatures out the window. I still can't believe how many wild buffalo I've seen on this trip! I'm so glad that the effort to restore their numbers was made just in the nick of time...it would have been such a shame if they had become extinct.
When we got to the info center, we signed up for the next tour which started in about 30 minutes. Carmen didn't want to go because she didn't have much cash left and her card we being declined (and her mother hadn't yet figured out the problem) - she also isn't a fan of the dark. So, the other three of us went and it was really cool. Wind Caves are something like the 4th longest caves in the world. Most of the passages, however, are contained within one square surface mile, but the cave has many layers (like a multi-story building underground). It also has more boxwork structure (a type of cave wall formation that looks like honeycomb) than any other cave (90% of all such formations in the world lie in this cave). Anyway, it was pretty awesome and afterward Enrique, Theresa and I talked to our guide about how she got into it and some of the explorations she's gone on (they are still discovering new things every day). The only natural entrance to the cave is a very small hole (first explored by skinny teens in the 1800s), that either emits a relatively strong wind, or sucks in wind, depending on pressure. When we were there the cave hole was blowing out wind at about 7 mph. Of course, now they have elevators and steps that enable us to enter.
After that, we drove a beautiful and curving road toward Mt. Rushmore. It was really cool because we went through several tunnels that framed Mt. Rushmore perfectly as you drive through. We stopped at an overlook on our way and took pictures from afar, then continued on. Parking cost $10, but it was really worth it. That mountain is really amazing! I wish we could've gone on top of the mountain like they do in "North by Northwest" but I don't think that's encouraged. lol And ps - the dining hall at Mt. Rushmore that is in the movie is now a huge modern gift shop. It is also no longer yellow. lol
We got done earlier than we expected, so we just kept driving toward the town of Wall, SD. Wall is the home of Wall Drug - the biggest drugstore in the world. They have everything you could imagine - pharmacy, diner (complete w/5 cent coffee and bison burgers), leather shops, jewelry, a bookstore, clothing, arcade games - you name it, they have it. Anyway, we wanted to say we'd been there and I picked up the 2nd Wall Drug cook book for Grandma Bailey as she had gotten the first one some years back and loved it. From there we drove the 45 mile loop through the Badlands Nat'l Park. They were BEAUTIFUL!!!
The Badlands are so strange. There is a desert like part that reminded me of Rainbow Basin but on a grander scale - with sharp pointed mounds of what appeared to be the same sandy material making up the mountains. Yet, right across from that, you could see a flat grassland. It was bizarre. On top of that, we were there right before and during sunset so the sun was casting beautiful shadows as well as painting the landscape orange. We saw some sort of mountain goat thing with huge horns and its baby right by the parking lot of our first overlook, then later I was driving along when I saw another mommy and baby lying together on top of one of the sandy dunes, apparently watching the sunset. It was so beautiful I pulled off the road and took pictures, but they really couldn't do the moment justice.
I can imagine that when it is really hot (which it was not) they would indeed earn their name as "the badlands" but really, they were one of the most breathtaking sights of the trip. I'm so glad we saw them!
From there we drove a while longer toward Omaha until after dark and started looking for a cheap motel (which, as it turns out, was an oxymoron). Finally we found "the Ponderosa" for $55 in the middle of freaking nowhere and everyone was excited to stay in a real "roadside motel" like in the movies. lol It really wasn't bad at all, and we got wonderful sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment