(high 82, low 41, very sunny)
We are at a very nice campground south of Hill City on Rte 244.
There are horses here and the campers were getting ready for a morning ride. The horses were lined up in the pavilion.
Little shops that look like an old western town align the entrance.
We stopped in Keystone and looked through the shops a little, wanted to see if I could find some Black Hills gold jewelry. Didn’t see anything I liked though.
Off to the Badlands today. What stunning sites. Sandstone mountains with prairie between. The White River runs through it. It gets its name from its white appearance due to all the silt in it. Beautiful vistas every way you look. We toured the main loop as well as an additional loop where the prairie dog town was.
Here’s a closeup of the rock formations and a picture of the valley floor. 
After about 40 miles along the loop, we came to some prairie dog towns. There were so cute to watch hop around and dart in and out of their holes. They are about as big as a red squirrel. I thought they would be larger.They were named prairie dogs because of their bark.
We also saw a couple of free-roaming bison.
As we were leaving the Badlands, we came across a couple of prairie flowers.
Along the way back from the Badlands, there was a small lake with about 25 white birds, perhaps wood storks. There was also a great blue heron which started to take flight but I could not get my camera opened up quickly enough.
Stopped at Wall and visited the tourist trap Wall Drug. Wall Drug started as a drug store but is now also a place to sell trinkets, etc. The shops are on both sides of the street. Here are some pics from our little visit. All we bought was an ice cream.
We came upon Wild Bill Hickock and Doc Holliday playing cards as well as a local entertainer. Fred picked up a “lady of the night”. Couldn’t keep his hands off of her!
The kids were having great fun running in, out, and around the sprinkler.
I decided I needed a ride on an antlered rabbit. What self-respecting grandma doesn’t???
We came across some cattle grazing freely along the road, no fences to keep them in.
The badlands are cool - kind of remind me of the grand canyon, but flat...if that makes any sense :)
ReplyDeleteBison and prairie dogs! Cool - the prairie dogs look like suirrels - but check out those nails!
Looks like cool stuff!!!! Wish I were there too!