Badlands! - Day Four

Today we started off with a tour of the Badlands National Park.  We entered the park from the eastern most entrance and immediately were in awe.  The scenery and the landscape tends to tease you with a little peek here and there before it opens up into an expanse of striated rock formations.  The muted red, yellow, and gold hues form a pastel landscape with the azure sky as the backdrop.  We took a boardwalk out into some of the rock formations and members of our party promptly joined the other tourists and went walking around and over the rock.  The landscape at first blush looks like it is just barren land.  But if you sit quietly and pay attention you will begin to see and hear all the lifeforms around you.  The quick, darting movements of the thirteen lined ground squirrel along with the floating seeds of the biggest dandelion I have ever seen quickly capture your attention.  

We stopped at a picnic site and had a gourmet lunch thanks to Cynthia.  She prepared a LOT of food and we have yet to go hungry!  And man was it good. Many thanks Cyn!  

After hopping back into the trusty family truckster we continued on our loop and we were so excited to come across some bighorn sheep.  Very cool stuff!  

Our navigator, John, was prepared and had recommended the Sage Creek Rim Road as the road to take to complete our scenic tour.  And it was amazing!  Of course we saw the ever ubiquitous prairie dog but then..... we saw our first herd of bison.  It was incredible.  These massive animals grazing down in the green valley with a backdrop of the beautiful mountains.  We were and are in awe.

We finished up our day back in Rapid City, South Dakota.  Had dinner at an Irish pub and walked along the street looking at the statues of the presidents.  The city has a statue of every president and they are placed on the sidewalks.  It's a pretty neat little city.  Of course, I had to take a picture of William H. Taft!

Tomorrow it is Mount Rushmore in the morning and Crazy Horse in the afternoon.  

Let the adventure continue!