Day 6: Combination of words to put on the back of a post card.

Combination of words to put on the back of a postcard.

On top of Harney.

Sometimes parenting calls for talents you didn't know you had. Like bed surgery. Anderw's Pokemon cards fell behind the bed, trapped in the beds innards. Before anything could be done, Josh preformed bed surgery and extracted them from the inside of the bed. Saving the day before 8am.

The goal today was climbing Harney Peak, the highest mountain between the Pyrenees and the Rockies. Instead of traveling 90, we decided to take a different route south through all of the Badlands and the Pine Ridge Reservation. Not only would we be able to see more of South Dakota, but we'd also be able to stop by the Buffalo Grasslands and gather rocks that we could actually take home with us. With our rock crazy kids, this place was a hit. It was also pretty crazy, it looked like the beach, the rocks tumbled and smooth and the ground white sand. We filled our pockets with neat rocks and headed on through the Badlands.

Want to purchase almost a whole town?  

Our trail led us through Scenic, SD. A town nearly abandoned with a sign that said, "nearly the whole town for sale.". The Badlands are still a tough place to live, I guess. Afterwards, we entered the Reserevation and went to the southern visitor center, run by the Reserevation. It was a nice center, but the bars on the windows told of a harsh world in the Reservation. Our neighbors went to Wounded Knee and spoke about the difficulty of life on the Resevation. They told us about the paltry memorial of Wounded Knee, something paid for by the people on the Reservation, not our government, which was the cause of the massacre. Sometimes it's hard to look at the past and accept the decisions of our ancestors.

Top of Harney.

Back down the trail.

From the visitor's center, we took the road west, which turned out to be a dirt road. This leads to an important lesson we learned about travel in SD, always make sure the road is paved. It is also reason #1 on why everyone has a truck in SD, not all the roads are paved. Needless to say, minivans and unpaved roads don't mix. It was a nerve wracking 20 miles with Jack Johnson blasting and beautiful country bumping by. It added time to our trip, but we finally made it to Harney Peak. We began the hike up later than we intended, but we still were able to hike up and back with time to jump in to Sylvan Lake, where we parked. Along the way, we made cairns as a hello to friends who were planning on climbing the moutains several days larder. Hopefully, the cairns will still be there to say hello!

Jackolope at Wall Drug.  

Sylvan Lake was beautiful, but our favorite swim was still Center Lake. We spent a bit of time in Keystone, grabbed dinner and headed back toward our cabin. The day was not over yet, our tiny bladdered daughter implored us to stop by Wall Drug. So, we took the plunge. It was a spectacle, which I guess should be expected from a business based on hundreds of billboards. The took the old west, made it cheesy and made a business of it. I guess this is as much of America as Mt. Rushmore or the Rockies. Afterwards, we headed back to the cabin and collapsed into bed.