We had one more day as tourists and decided to head for the Badlands. As a side note, we didn't need to stay in Rapid for 3 nights except for some really stupid airline fare pricing. We had originally planned to fly in Tuesday, take care of business on Wednesday, fly home on Thursday. Nice sweet, in out trip, right? It would have cost us over $1000 more to stick with that plan. By staying until Friday, we saved over $1000. If anyone can figure out how they price airline fares, please let me know. If only Southwest would fly to Rapid City...
Badlands National Park is East of Rapid and in the plains area of SD. I am so used to the "golden" fields (that would be dead/dormant grass) that you see in most of the West and Southwest this time of year that I was shocked how green SD was looking. Maybe that's normal, I really don't know. We were excited about going to a National Park because we got to use our Senior Passes (use to be Golden Eagle or some such nonsense) and we didn't have to pay an admission fee. Yeah!
The short summary of our trip: We saw cows (not fenced), buffalo (not fenced), prairie dogs, and lots of eroded soil. It was really neat. Here's some pictures of our day:
We didn't have the time to spend to take side trips, hikes, or much of anything else. It was also a 103 degrees which limited our outside time as well. We will return when the weather is a little more conducive exploring.
Despite my warning, Mary had to stop at Wall Drug on the way back to Rapid. For those of you who have been there, need I say more? If you haven't, don't go unless you like to visit tourist traps.
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