BADLANDS

South Dakota- the best roads we have encountered to date.  Smooth, straight, mostly flat.  I love it.

Taking the gang to the Badlands National Park-located 75 miles east of Rapid City SD.  We have seen pictures of the park in books etc, but all we have seen for real  is grasslands and prairie.  Then comes the exit off Rt 90.  Eight miles to the national park.   Bam! We enter the park and the landscape changes dramatically.  As we enter further into the park the view just gets even more amazing. Alan took some pics (he really needs to learn how to use the camera) as the pictures just  don't show the drama, color variations and vastness.  244,000 acres of buttes, pinnacles and spires and the largest grassland prairie in in the country.  Amazing place.   We score a campsite (first come first served) at the  Cedar Pass campground (96 sites) located in the valley floor near the visitor center.  $10/ per day for a dry camping spot or  $18 with electric only. Not free, but the view is worth it.   

No sooner do we get set up and the typical afternoon storm moves in.   The scenery changes again as the sky darkens, the winds blow and the rain falls.  Half an hour later the storm moves on.

 The next morning they take the jeep and wonder off to see more of the park.There is the loop road and some smaller interior roads leading to hiking trails.  They see the warning signs and stick to the well marked trails!

Even the sunsets are great!

Later that day they take a 3 mile ride out of the park to check out the closest town, Interior SD, 

population 67.  There  is a grocery (really a  liquor store that sells a few edibiles) a school,  a bar/casino, and a post office (didn't even have a mail box outside for after hours) and a city (?)  jail of course!

We needed to be at our next destination in a few days so only stayed for two nights.  Lots more to see here so a return trip is not out of the question to this beautiful National treasure.  

Bev and Major relaxing  on my roof deck and  enjoying the view.