Badlands National Park, SD

TUE., MAY 30 thru SUN., JUNE 4, 2023

We left Ft. Thompson, SD on Tuesday morning, May 30th (2023), and traveled 150 miles on 90 West to arrive at Badlands/White River KOA near Badlands NP. A nice drive with wide open fields with cattle grazing, silos, and tons of billboards on I-90 advertising the Firehouse Brewery in Rapid City. Each billboard was accompanied by a full-size fire truck. Amazing! We also saw lots of ads for Wall Drug, the world’s largest drug store. And we even got a sneak peak of the Badlands since we drove through a small portion of it to arrive at the campground. Our sites are “cozy” i.e. tight. Luckily the Hannafords are parked next to us! 

On Wednesday, May 31st (2023), the pod visited Badlands NP, which consists of 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires surrounded by a mixed-grass prairie ecosystem. In other words, it was gorgeous! We drove Badlands Loop Road stopping many times to admire the views and do some hiking. We saw rock formations in every color, and we saw beautiful fields of prairie grass…  the park has 64,000 acres of prairie. At one time prairie grass covered more than half the continent. Now less than 2% of North America’s native prairie remains.

And we saw bird and animal sightings. We saw lots of Cliff Swallows busy building nests, a Western Meadowlark (they sing the sweetest song), and we saw a family of Big Horn Sheep. Amazing! Did I mention Prairie Dogs? There were hundreds, if not thousands, of their tell-tale mounds all over the park.

The park gets 1,000,000 visitors per year. We were fortunate that it was not crowded during our time here. A truly special National Park. 

On Thursday, June 1st (2023), the pod headed to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. It’s the first National Park dedicated exclusively to the Cold War. It was established in 1999 to preserve two 1960s missile sites… a silo and a launch control facility. Unfortunately, the launch control facility requires a separate ticket. A ranger takes 6 people through on a tour. Tickets can be purchased 90 days in advance. We had not done that so no tour for us today, but we were able to explore the Visitor’s Center. 

We learned that by the 1980s, there were 64,000 nuclear weapons amassed by the USA and the Soviet Union. The deterrence program was called MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). You launch one at me. I’ll get you back and then some. Oy. The Visitor’s Center was scarily informative about the close calls that occurred over the years. Reminds me of the Jack Nicholson movie where he says “You can’t handle the truth.” Nope, I can’t. 

After that we stopped at the Prairie Homestead. It’s one of the only original farm sod homes still intact today. Built in 1909 of dirt sod bricks and a dirt roof. The Homestead Act of 1862 said that a person 21 years of age or older could file on 160 acres of land for $18. The homesteader had to build a house, plow a small acreage for crops, and establish a residence for 5 years in order to receive ownership. A common remark by homesteaders was that “the government bet you 160 acres of land against $18 that you will starve to death before you live on the land 5 years.”

Just as we were walking the grounds, the storm that had been brewing… descended with thunder and rain. The rain let up enough that we were able to stop for some pictures in Badlands NP on the way back to the campground. While the rock formations are in all different colors, the darker bands of color are due to fossilized soils. We were told every drop of rain erodes these ancient soils. The Badlands holds one of the greatest collections of fossil mammals on earth. Scientists and researchers come from all over the globe to study them.

Another interesting and fun day for the pod!

On Friday, June 2nd (2023), Gary & I visited the famous Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD. It’s the World’s Largest Drug Store. The size and amount of stuff in it is overwhelming! It takes up a whole block. You can buy jewelry, western garb, food and everything in between. We bought ice cream. It’s been around since 1931 and has 2 million visitors a year. Amazing!

On Sunday, June 4th (2023) we celebrated C&J’s 40th anniversary with pancakes prepared by the campground and our own mimosas in the morning. In the evening we hosted dinner at our house and played games. Gary had put together a special 1980s playlist to set the mood! It was a fun day! 

Tomorrow we have to say goodbye to this area and move on. One thing we won’t miss are the Miller moths that have been our companions this week. They are in the process of migrating to Colorado’s Front Range. Oh Em Gee! You haven’t seen anything like this. We were fortunate to only have about 20 or 25 in our tiny home at night. (They are attracted to light.) There are rental cabins across from us at the campground. We saw the staff open the door to clean out a cabin and thousands came out. Eeeeuuuwww. We won’t miss these suckers!!