Day 2

Jon woke up early so he drove while I slept for a couple hours. It was chilly and cloudy in the early morning. Our first stop was at a scenic view of the Missouri River and a little tribute to Lewis and Clark. There was a cool bridge and nice facilities. Then we were off to the Badlands National Park!!



The Badlands!



We arrived to the park around 8 a.m. their time. We got our park pass and began our 5 hour adventure in the Badlands :) We saw incredible rock formations and walked a couple trails. At some points it just looked like another planet according to Jon – absolutely incredible. We also saw a variety of wildlife including bison, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and birds. We got a close look of some of them. We took tons of pictures and had a great time! We took Sage Creek back to see the prairie dogs, bison, and pronghorn, but it was definitely worth it. The prairie dogs populated an entire section. Many of them were out running around, eating, or just relaxing. We did see a very chubby prairie dog sitting up, munching on something. The bison were right off the road from where we were. On our way from the park to Wall, we were starred down by a group of pronghorn while driving past.

Instead of going straight to Wall, we took a detour for a few miles to see the Missile Silo. This is out in the middle of nowhere, but definitely cool to check out. They had little information sheets that had a number you could call to get an audio tour/more information on the Missile Silo.

Off to Wall, South Dakota! On the way to the Badlands, you see obscene amounts of billboards and signs for Wall Drug and other sites in Wall, so we had to check it out. You also get a free glass of ice water if you go to Wall Drug. It is a bit of a tourist trap, but worth taking some time for us to check it out. We took some fun pictures and even saw a giant mechanical T-Rex they had…so random. They had some saltwater taffy we bought because they had some unique flavors like huckleberry. We walked down the little town and decided to eat at a local bar. We both got a buffalo burger and they were delicious. Then it was off to Custer!

Custer State Park…wow. We decided to take the Wildlife Route and boy was it the right choice. We saw: bison, meal deer, white tailed deer, pronghorn, wild turkeys, cows, and more prairie dogs! We saw some baby animals, too. We saw bison right next to the road, watched deer cross the road right in front of us, and wild turkeys cross the road, too. Very, very cool. There was a place where you could drive up to the fire tower on top of a mountain, so we thought “ Why not?” It was a very narrow road and the fire tower was very high up, but the view was breathtaking. What an experience. We made it down the mountain safely and continued our scenic drive.



Bison right by the road!




Us on top of the mountain by the fire tower!

After that, we took the Needles Scenic route to Mount Rushmore with a little detour to the Crazy Horse Monument. We went through some narrow tunnels and saw some more of the beautiful landscape.



Going through a narrow tunnel on the Needles Scenic route.

We made it to Mount Rushmore about 8:45 p.m. They had a lighting ceremony that was going to be at 9:30 pm. so we checked out the inside a little bit. It had interesting exhibits and we caught the end of the movie they were showing. We sat in on the last half of the lighting ceremony. They showed a movie about the sculptor and the presidents’ achievements. A woman sang “America the Beautiful” at the end of the video, and the lit up Mount Rushmore. Everyone joined in to sing the “National Anthem” and they had a little flag ceremony for all the veterans and military members in the audience.




Mount Rushmore lit up at night

We found our way back to Rapid City, South Dakota and spent the night in the Dakota Pines Inn.