The Badlands

AMAZING!!  THIS PLACE IS AMAZING!!  We arrived late morning and secured campsites for the next two nights.  Our first stop was Wall.  Apparently back in the 1930's it was a small drug store, and most likely the only one.  It has grown into a city block with trinkets and trash and even a small diner.  It was fun to explore but was certainly a touristy thing.  After a few hours, we headed to the National Park.

                                      Oliver's fortune says he has much happiness in his future!

                                                      Just one more thing to worry about

We drove the RV along the steep and winding scenic drive.  There were many places to stop along the way and take in the views or hike the trails. We stopped at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center where we discovered a museum of all the fossils found in this area.  We also were told about a night astronomy program at the Amphitheater after sunset.  Oliver has been wanting to star gaze, so this was a must to do!  It was unbelievably hot, so we decided to head to our first campsite, Minute Man Campground near the Pinnacles Entrance.  We set up the RV and just chilled in the A/C.  There was a refreshing pool too!  

After dinner, we headed back to the park and took in some amazing views as the sun left the sky.

We attended the ranger program in the park and found it quite interesting.  We were able to view the moon, venus, a double star and other fascinating facts in the night sky thru their high-powered telescopes. The next morning we were up early and headed out for more exploring.  Before the park entrance was a pioneer homestead that we visited.  In the late 1800's the government gave willing citizens 160 acres of land to move out west and farm the land.  I can't imagine enduring the elements of high temps and freezing winters. 

Again, we quickly discovered it was too hot to do anything so we headed to our 2nd campsite and hunkered down until it became more tolerable.  At least this campsite had some trees!  It also had a dog park with a sprinkler!

We stopped at a souvenir shop close to the campsite and I bought Oliver a Rubberband shooting rifle and a  Daniel Boone cap.  He spent the rest of the afternoon in the RV shooting at empty water bottles he would set up in a pyramid.  He became quite a sharp shooter!

We were able to do some laundry and clean while we waited for it to cool down a bit.  We headed back out after dinner and it was still 97 degrees!!  However, there was a cloud cover so it was bearable.  We hiked some trails but I found them to be VERY steep and slippery and lost confidence in my footing.  At some points, we had to slide down.

                  It was fun to return to the same trail we hiked about 10 years ago when we were here.

Walking the Fossil trail we stumbled upon a couple of big horn sheep.  Fascinating to see.  They seemed unimpressed by us and allowed me to get within a close, but careful distance for some nice photos.

A storm was approaching so we decided to head back to the campsite.  It was spectacular to watch the lightening in the distance over the prairie and feel the wind whip around you.  Apparently they have pretty violent thunderstorms in this area, often with hail.  we were fortunate not to experience that!  The Badlands are beautiful but harsh.  We enjoyed out 2 days here very much!