We headed into the Badlands. I have never really been interested in this park. Brown rock doesn't intrigue me much. I suppose visiting in the middle of the day during the heat of summer didn't help too much either. But no, I really wasn't too interested, and we drove through pretty quickly. The few very short walks I took I got too hot and the vistas were not much different than we could see from the road. So all in all I spent too much time here.
I got roped into a ranger talk at the fossil stop, Louisa didn't know there was a bathroom there and had an accident, we spent time waiting for her to clean up and then drove on a fairly wild goose chase trying to see the prairie dogs and buffalo supposed to be in the west section of the park.
Finally, trying to head west we ended up going north and got stuck in Wall SD. The heart of Wall is Wall Drug. This is the epitome of tourist trap. Fun in a funky sort of way it is shop after shop of stuff to buy simply because you are near a national park so you should buy something. We ended up eating across the street, which was okay. But between the park and Wall we spent about three hours we really didn't need to spend.
And so when we finally arrived at Keystone and found the museum where the Carrie Ingalls Swanzey exhibit was supposed to be we found the museum closed at 3pm and it was 4:15. It was not a good way to end our quest and pilgrimage. We sat there on a park bench letting the disappointment have full sway so we could let it go and move on.
Moving on included heading to Mt Rushmore for one last stop. Having done the whole thing last time we visited we weren't too interested in more than just a look and an ice cream.
The real attraction was Custer State Park Wildlife loop. This we had not done last time, so taking the winding and twisting Iron Mt road to the park we drove south through the park. And YES this Was the right way to end our trip. We saw tons of prairie dogs, and then we saw a few buffalo and then we were stopped by a buffalo migration. We sat on the road for about half an hour as buffalo after buffalo crossed the road. There were the mama buffalo with their cute little calfs, and the single yearling buffalo, one after another. Then at the end was the majestic master of the herd, the huge and mighty bull. Wow, was all we could say. It was Fantastic!
But wait, there was more. Just a turn down the road was another herd right along the road, we were blessed, and grateful. But wait, there was more. Groups of Antelope, some with horns.
But wait, there was more. We came to a hill and there was a traffic jam and a herd of wild donkeys. People were petting them and feeding them and we could not get through. One even stuck his head in the car and the car started driving and the donkey kept up with the car with his head in the window trotting down the road. We were bursting out laughing. It was a great drive, well worth the admission price and a great way to end the day and trip.
We couldn't get to Guernsey State park to camp so paid for a hotel in Lusk. Where you ask? Well it was the absolute best hotel of the trip. Very nice in this little town in the middle of nowhere on a cross roads between roads that go nowhere. They were so friendly and nice.
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