Badlands and Minuteman

Wednesday 7/18 6:15am - Starting to adjust to the two hour time difference and made it to 5:30am today. We are now at Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota where we will stay for a week. As we turned a corner and saw the park gate Aaron said, "Wow, it's like we are entering the set of a horror movie." But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to the fabulous day we spent in the Badlands.

I guess the time change is impacting everyone since we were able to head off on a hike at 7:30am yesterday. First we did Notch Trail. The description for that says "Not recommended for anyone with a fear of heights." A few of us (most of us) have a pretty hearty fear of heights but we decided to challenge ourselves and all agree that it was totally worth it. We saw more little chipmunks and some gorgeous views.

Our reward at the end of the hike.

Heading back down to earth!

My turn.

We got back in the truck and decided to drive part of the Badlands Loop Road but it wasn't long until we came upon another trail we wanted to try, the Saddle Pass trail. This short, yet strenuous trail takes you on a climb up the Badlands Wall to another view over the White River Valley.

We continued on and did about half of the Badlands Loop Road before turning around and heading to the camper for lunch.

So cool how the prairie just ends and opens into this.

Right down the road from the Badlands in another national site - The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. After going to the visitor center and watching an informative movie about the arms race during the Cold War, we went to another site to tour one of command centers. Quick note on that - I highly recommend the tour but you have to book tickets three months in advance during peak times. It was a very unassuming building located within sight of I-90. We toured the above ground building before taking an elevator down 30 feet into the command capsule where two people had the power to turn their keys and change/end the world. Actually it would have taken four since two individuals at another command center would also have to turn their keys to successfully launch the 50 missiles within their squadron. Aaron, our sensitive optimist had a very difficult time wrapping his head around the whole thing. Both boys said it was the highlight of their trip so far.

Waiting outside the command center for our tour.

A little Minuteman humor

Inside the command capsule.

We made a quick stop at one of the missile locations and talked with a Park Ranger who was an actual minuteman for many years.

Looking at the disarmed missile in the middle of a field.

After all that seriousness we stopped at Wall Drug, a famous tourist trap, for a 5 cent coffee and a treat. We can say that we have been but would never feel like we need to come back.

Back to Badlands to get the dogs and our trailer before heading to Custer State Park to meet up with my Dad and Gail. After our tour we kept hearing weather warnings on the radio. They were annoying to the boys who couldn't understand why they went on for so long and were happening so often. Well, we understood when we pulled into Custer State Park and were greeted with piles of snow .... snow in July?!?!?... no, not snow but piles of large hail. This combined with twilight, mist rising from the ground and another impending storm complete with lightening did indeed make it seem like we were entering something out of a horror movie. My Dad and Gail were at the site for the storm and luckily only sustained minor damage. Others were not so lucky but at least everyone survived and the creek that runs next to our sites seems to be contained in the creek bed and is not flooding as some of the advisories warned.

We luckily avoided all the serious storms but were treated to another rainbow on our drive. Instead of taking I-90 to the Black Hills we opted to take SD-44 which I would highly recommend. The road wasn't the best but we were rewarded with lovely terrain.

Today the sun is shining and the hail is finally melting.