Good day at the office! I drove scenic state highways for most of the day. I started on #44 to Interior, one of the East entrances to the Badlands National Park. I didn't know what to expect other than I knew I'd try to compare it to the park of the same name in Alberta. Well, they re both made of bad lands, lands that are not much use other than to look at. They seem made of the same type of dirt which becomes exceptionally slippery when wet. And sticky too, I might add.
This Park has a paved road through the main part with many suitable turn-offs or parking areas to see the really neat stuff. They also have quite a few boardwalks and many trails, plus campgrounds and all that. The bench in the first picture is one of many through the Park that offer a great view of the badlands. The lack of fencing, guardrails and protection barriers was wonderful photo-wise.
The next photo is looking east, roughly where I was standing to make the first photo. As you can tell, it's quite an impressive panorama.
These next two pictures are for the grandkids. I wonder if they could tell me what these little guys are? They seemed to live fairly bunched together in a very small area of the park, right alongside the highway. There were lots of them and they spent their time foraging for food which they then ate while standing on their hind legs. Cute or what? Who knows, maybe they're prairie dogs.
As you can see, this one is not exactly starving...
Further on in the Park, I saw these hills that showed different colours depending on how old each section was. I guess it all depends what chemicals were around, and at what temperature the rock was subjected to. Whatever the method, it was quite beautiful.
This last shot reminds me of some canyons in Utah where these colours are quite common. There had to be a few hundred feet between that first layer of rock and the wall in the background. Strange how things erode over time. Eventually, a real long eventually, these hills, cliffs, mountains will erode to small chunks of dirt and make the base for a new plains.
I left the Park by mid afternoon and ended up in Wall, South Dakota. I know you all remember why that's famous, but I'll tell you anyway: Wall Drug Store since 1931. I first heard of it when I worked in Environment Canada but I'm not sure why. At any rate, much like the monument nearby, I had to go in. It's been turned into a pretty profitable tourist trap full of the very worst ticky-tacky stuff that you'll ever see at a garage sale. I resisted buying each of you a solar-powered keychain that is guaranteed to flash on and off for 5 years. Of course it would have had your name on it, but I figure the sun don't shine where keys are usually kept...
I then took the Interstate 90 to exit 212 and drove the scenic route to the state capitol and returned by yet another scenic route that ended up here in Chamberlain. I tried three motels before finding one with Internet... Only to find that gmail seems to be having problems of its own so I can't do e-mails so far tonight. I should be at Farwell Minnesota later tomorrow.
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