Day 5: I can see for miles and miles.

I can see for miles and miles...

The Badlands, as beautiful as they are difficult. 

This was below ground level.  

Ranger Larry!

In our first full day in the Badlands, we said a big yes to the Ranger programs. We went to 4 of them and they were fantastic,although I think Ranger Larry, who presented most of them was getting annoyed with the children shouting out the answers they learned from him earlier by the end. There is this program called the teacher ranger
teacher program and participants in this program present information about the park throughout the day, it was fantastic.

Hanging out on the Buttes, the ravine there is where the other photo was taken. 

We started off at the Door hike and the geology program. The amazing thing about the Badlands is the buttes look like giant drip castles, and its almost what they are. Millions of years ago, the Badlands were under water, much of the landscape and geology was shaped at this time. Because of the composition of the Badlands, they erode at a very fast rate, revealing many fossils and other neat things as the buttes wash away. From the geology hike, we brought the kids to the junior ranger program, where they learned about the tribes that lived around the area and the landscape then collected patches and junior ranger pins. After that program, we ate lunch on the road and drove around the park until we came back to the fossil program, which gave each of us a desire to find a fossil and fill out the official form.

Climbing a ladder up buttes in the Notch trail.

Hiking is a big activity for our family and we had selected the Notch hike. Most of the hikes in the Badlands were well under a mile round trip, which seemed easy to us, so we felt confident picking this mile and a half "moderate to strenuous" hike. A mile and a half is something we would normally think nothing of, but we've never hiked the Badlands slippery surface in 100+ degree weather, no trees anywhere. We made it most of the way, up a tall trecheous ladder, but even we find some situations dangerous and right near the end a slippery ledge with a 20 foot drop turned us back.

Sod house.

Prairie dog at the sod house.

Stage coach at Cowboy Corner.  

Although the hiking was not as long as we are used to, we were still exhausted and fried and headed to check out the Praire House, a sod house exhibit toward the highway. The stories of the settlers who came here is pretty amazing and it was neat to see the kind of house they had lived in. I can't imagine dealing with the summers or winters in those primative dwellings. The kids got to chase after prarie dogs and feed goats and sheep grass.

Billy goats on the buttes, close up of other photo.

We journeyed back to Interior in the hopes of catching the grocery open to find something to make for dinner. While the grocery was open, I can't imagine finding much for dinner there. We did find popsicles for the kids and beer at Cowboy Corner for us. We wearily went back to the visitor center to the praise ranger program. As we learned about prarie grasses and chromobiotic soil, in the distance we watched lightening, thunder, and rain hit. Amazing. Rangers Larry cut the talk short to be on the safe side, but not before we found a fossilized bone! We hurried back to the center to proudly fill out our fossil report form and then went back to dinner at the restaurant.

Upper right corner.

After dinner, we climbed the buttes to watch the sunset, with the boys scrambling up and down in terrifying ways, Josh and Ellie trying to keep up and me just holding my breath. The Fat Tire beer was delicious after the kids went to bed and the sleep was too.

Sunset on the buttes.

Day 4: Roam if you want to.

Roam if you want to!

Mount Rushmore!

More bison.

Amazing 1930's caretakers cabin.  

Once you are surrounded by a herd of Buffalo doing their thing, you get addicted. Josh and I seemed to come up with excuses to see those buffalo again and going early in the morning seemed like a great idea. So, our journey began going through Custer State Park, driving us by an amazing 1930's ranger cabin and once again by some buffalo. The thrill was still there in the morning. We drove through wind cave national park, mainly to go over this crazy bridge that I saw in photos. It was honestly a bigger thrill looking at the photo than driving over the bridge, which seemed like any other bridge, just narrow. I'll have to find the photo again and show off to myself that I've been there to get the thrill I'd hope for.

Sometimes, for children, the most exciting parts of a trip is buying souvenirs. Owen is crazy for rocks and fossils, so when he saw Ken's Minerals and Rock Shop, he was chomping at the bit to go. Ken did not disappoint. The place was covered with rocks and minerals. Some so cool that even I was interested. Owen found his rocks, Andrew got a real buffalo jaw bone (yes, it's pretty big and no, I don't know what we'll do with it, but it's better than the whole skull he wanted)' Ellie got a piece of rose quartz. I found a really neat small jaw bone fossil fragment complete with teeth. Properly mineraled, we drove toward Crazy Horse and prepared to see mountain sized sculptures.

The boys.

But, we choose not to drive up to Crazy Horse. Someday, it'll be really amazing, but right now it's just a head poking out. There was a Native American museum on site, but even with that we couldn't justify the $27 to get closer to the monument. So, we drove along to Mount Rushmore. Many people have downplayed seeing Mt Rushmore, but we were blown away. The actual monument is pretty spectacular, but when you think about how they created it, it's even more impressive. When you compare Crazy Horse monument, which has been carved for the past 50 years and is only 20% finished, the accomplishment of Mt Rushmore, carved in only 14 years is amazing. Plus, the tools in the 1930's were quite different from today. Yet, it's a masterpiece. We drank in the mountain, and then walked along the presidential trail. Our first stop, a Native American exhibit, where we learned more about the buffalo we'd become so fixated on. They can run over 45 miles per hour and can jump 7 feet in the air from a run!

On the road to the Badlands, a visit to a Prairie Dog town.  

The rest of the presidential trail has a stop with information about each of the Rushmore presidents, finishing up with the artists' studio, where a ranger was giving an amazing talk on the history of Mt. Rushmore. We finished our trip at the gift shop, of course, got some shirts and tchotchkes and headed down the road to the Badlands.

Cowboy Corner in Interior, SD.

If you've been camping for several days, you are aware of the joy that comes from finally having a bathroom at your disposal. Camping is wonderful, but it does make you appreciate a nice hot shower. Were the Badlands not so spectacular, I probably would have thought of nothing more than washing the grit, bug spray, and sunblock of travel off, but the Badlands are breath taking. They remind me of that bad relationship that you just can't leave. You know there's no future in it, but somehow it's so irresistible that you can't help imagining it. We settled in to our clean, comfortable cabin and made our way to the visitor center to plan for the next day then headed to the nearby town of Interior, population 67 to try to find dinner food at the small grocery there.

Interior takes up about 2 acres of land. There are several homes, a school, a small grocery, a gas station (cowboy corner), a church, and three bars. It's fantastic, but it even beat us on trying to find dinner food with the small grocery closed. We bought some beer at the gas station and went to the cedar pass restaurant for dinner. The food was pretty good and afterwards we went to our backyard butte to watch the sunset. There is something magical about this place.

Butte behind our cabin.

After the kids went to bed, we met our next door neighbors who were on a dads trip. We hung out with Tom and Dave, and heard about the elusive Shea, who lived not too far from us just outside of Albany. Meeting fellow travelers is always a thrill for me and was a great way to begin our Badlands experience.

Sunset in the Badlands.