Today was our first full day of sightseeing. We got up and ate breakfast at the hotel. I just love those waffle makers. Pre-measured batter poured into the griddle, turn it over and wait 2.5 minutes and presto! Waffles!
We headed out to Badlands National Park. The route there was REALLY windy. On the way there we saw a fifth wheel flipped over from the wind. A little further down, a motor home awning blew off the side of the vehicle and into the center of the highway.
On the way to the badlands we stopped at Wall Drugs in Wall, SD. This is a famous landmark and the birthplace of highway billboards. We stopped and picked up some shirts and fudge. The fudge was really good 😉
We left Wall and headed down the highway one more exit. We then turned off and entered Badlands National Park
As we entered the park, the wind was incredible. It was all could do to prevent the park pass and id from flying out of my hand when I handed it to the ranger at the entrance gate.
We took a lot of pictures of the badlands. Rather than display them all here, I have just put links:
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The wind was incredible (did I say that already?). The news reported gusts of up to 51 mph today. I took a short video of the wind. You can watch by clicking on the image below:
Not only was it windy, but it was cold too, as demonstrated by Angie
After driving through the Badlands, we made it to the visitors center. We watched a short film about the badlands. While there, I was chatting with the ranger. She mentioned that earlier in the week they had 71-mph winds. The winds were so strong that it bent their flag pole.
After we finished at the visitor center, we headed out to the Minute Man National Historical Site. Unfortunately, they only do one tour a day during this period of the year. We missed the 10am tour. We chatted with the ranger. It turns out he used to work at the facility when he was in the air force. We got a very detailed education and insight to the minuteman missile program.
We headed back from the badlands and stopped back at Wall, SD for lunch. After lunch we came back a separate way. We decided to drive the Needles Highway. This highway has three more tunnels:
Click on the image below to watch the video:
Along the road, angie found some snow
We did not see any bison this trip along the highway, but we did see a lot of mule deer. Even on the way back to the hotel about 1 mile away, there were two deer on the side of the road eating grass. Every time we drove by, they would raise their heads and watch us drive by, then go back to eating.
After we left needles highway, we returned to the hotel. We unloaded all our souvenirs and went out to get dinner. After dinner, we drove up to Mount Rushmore. Pretty much everything but the gift shop was closed, but we were able to walk around and see the monument. We will go back tomorrow on our way back from our sightseeing. We headed back to the hotel for a well deserved night of rest.