South Dakota down, Onto Wyoming

Woo we’re in Wyoming!

So much driving, but definitely worth it. Yesterday was really busy. On our way to the Badlands, we stopped at this place called the Corn Palace which was the weirdest place we’ve ever seen lol. It was built in the 1890s (I think) to celebrate the year’s annual harvest. There were even drawings on the outside of the building made out of corn.

We then drove to the Badlands and it was awesome! Nothing like we’d ever seen before. The structures looked like sand dropping castles you make at the beach. We hiked two trails, one with a long ladder scaling a rock wall that we had to climb. I was terrified of rattlesnakes the whole time because I probably read at least ten warning signs.

After hiking for a few hours, we decided to go to this place in the city of Wall called Wall Drug store. I kid you not, there were probably 200 signs on the highway for it. It was like a JRs/souvenir shop on steroids. There was a restaurant, Native American gifts, full size t-Rex and other assortments of things. I even sat on a six foot tall jackalope!

And then after that, we camped in Badlands. We lucked out, the place was free and had a great view of the park! It was a grand circle in the middle of the park, and everyone has their tents set up in the middle (Sage Creek campground). We even got to see the moon rise over our campground. As a bonus, we saw literally hundreds of prairie dogs.

This morning, we broke camp early, around 7:30, and started for Mount Rushmore/Yellowstone. “Bye bye Badlands” – doggy

Two hours later, we found ourselves staring into the faces of good ole Lincoln and company. We walked the Presidential Trail and got some historical perspective on how it was built. The builders spent fourteen (?) years blowing up the rocks with dynamite to get the perfect sculptures.