Badlands: Jewel of South Dakota

Last night when I arrived at my pit stop in Rapid City, SD, it was windy and rainy.  This morning when I woke up, the skies were clear, but it was still VERY windy! And, cold!  It would warm up to about 50 degrees today, but the gusty winds made it seem so much colder!  My main destination of the day was Badlands National Park, but on the way, I stopped for a little history lesson.  I checked out an old Delta-09 missile launch facility, part of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.  Back in 1991 when the U.S. and Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), both sides agreed to destroy part of their nuclear arsenal.  It was decided to keep a couple of launch facilities...after removing the missiles, of course...for educational purposes.  I was only able to see some of the surface structures, but it was still impressive.

Despite the strong winds putting a damper on any hiking I planned to do at Badlands, I still had a great day there.  Taking photos was somewhat of a challenge, given the gusts, but it was hard to take a bad picture.  The landscapes and rock formations were gorgeous, and I was able to make good use of my camera's panorama setting.

The park also had a prairie dog town, but after two days of seeing those critters, I had my fill of them.  At one point while driving along, I came across another vehicle stopped on the road.  I looked around to see why, and spotted three female bighorn sheep casually grazing nearby.  This was the first time I've ever seen bighorns in the wild, and it was really cool.

It was only later after I checked into my hotel and looked over my photos that I discovered I had snapped a lot more bighorns.  While taking in the scenery, I spotted a group of specks that I zoomed in on, but couldn't quite identify.  I took a few photos anyway, and forgot about it.  This is what my camera captured.

Later in the afternoon, I visited the town of Wall, with its famous drug store.  Anyone who has driven I-90 and other highways in the area would be hard pressed not to notice the Wall Drug billboards advertising 5 cent coffee and free ice water!  I got sucked into checking out the tourist trap, and it was what I expected.  It's basically a huge gift store, but it was a good excuse to buy a few early Christmas presents.  I must admit I found their mechanical singing people a bit creepy, though. 

Tomorrow, it supposed to be SUNNY! And, WARM!  At least I consider 60s temps warm.  To me, that's perfect!  One more day in South Dakota.  I might go back to Wall Drug tomorrow morning and grab one of their famous donuts...