Started in: Badlands National Park, SD
Ended in: Badlands National Park, SD
Total Distance: Hiking: 0.5 miles, Driving: 61 miles
This place is so desolate in the best possible way. This is not our first badland, and in fact this place strongly resembled Petrified Forest and other parts of the Glen Canyon area. But the prairie grass all around definitely set it apart. I think that I wish I knew a little bit more about the hiking situation, as the trail was definitely just open terrain and R and I definitely became very concerned that we were just tromping through the terrain. The whole thing felt almost like a forensic investigation, though, into the disappearance of a river--the hardened and cracked mud, the steep banks, this all felt like a dried river bed.
We ended up driving a bit as R wasn't feeling well. Toward sunset, though, the animals were out in force. In addition to lots of mule deer, we saw some Bighorn Sheep just chilling majestically on a flat patch of land. We also drove to Wall Drug as, after missing Mount Rushmore, we didn't want to miss out on another tourist trap. I must admit, I found the whole enterprise rather charming. It is big, filled with tourists, but I really appreciated it. We read the informational packet about how the owner turned an advertisement for Free Water into this mini-empire. We really appreciated that after starting the tale by describing the tiny town of Wall, South Dakota as "godforsaken," the founder eventually went back and said, "there's absolutely no place on God's earth that's Godforsaken. No matter where you live, you can succeed, because wherever you are, you can reach out to other people." That's great, right?
Also, the life-size wood carvings of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are great.