South Dakota bound- Day 4 (6/11)

 On Wednesday, we woke up in Wall and headed out for breakfast at Wall Drug.  The kids (well, not Logan) enjoyed revisiting the dinosaur and perusing all the shops.  Breakfast was really good.  Everyone got ice water.  We were there for couple hours or less and then went up the road to Badlands National Park.  It started out very windy with a misty rain.  The wind stayed, but at least the rain stopped.

Way too nervous about that dinosaur!

There was a splash pad with water jets in the Wall Drug back yard.  Pretty neat, but way too early and chilly for when we were there!

Logan acting a bit bashful, I can't imagine why!

We stopped in at the National Grasslands visitor center since it was right next to our motel and van.  The kids all became Junior Rangers and left with goodie bags full of fun trinkets.  Daddy stole their Smokey Bear magnets.

We left Wall and headed down the road 10 or 15 minutes to one of the entrances of the Badlands.  Right away, there was the turn for the Sage Creek Rim Road scenic drive.  There were a few lookouts with the typical Badlands formations and then the prairie dog area before coming to grassy, rolling hills.  There were many miles of that, but fun to keep a lookout for buffalo!  The kids did well, I suppose it was because the big ones were allowed to be unbuckled.  

Came across one big guy close up!

After the Sage Creek Rim Road, it seemed to take forever to find the Badlands loop road.  You have to leave the park and drive for a while before entering again.  At least that's what we did, maybe there was a better way.  Either way, we found the visitors center, mainly for the smashed pennies.  There was some construction work going on, so kind of messy.  We stopped at a couple small trail areas, but it was so darn windy and dusty.

Big gust!

 Hang on, boys!

 Very windy lookout....

 We were on the tail end of the Badlands Loop road and Luke spotted a small herd of mountain goats!  We ended up doing both of the scenic routes (Sage Creek Rim Road and the Badlands Loop) while making several stops, and it took us about 6 hours.

We stopped at the Subway in Wall for a late dinner and got back on the road for the 1.5 hour drive to the cabin in Hill City.  We pulled in just before dark... enough time to unpack a little and for the kids to check out the hot tub!  The next day we did the 2 big Black Hills icons, Reptile Gardens and Bear Country.  More to come!