Day 7 - Wall to Badlands to Mount Rushmore to Deadwood

This trip has been everything I'd hoped for so far but let me say right now that days like today are the real reason that I left D.C. in the first place. For all of the modern metropolises that I've been to and will visit, the natural wonders of the U.S. are what I really hoped to see.

I started off the day in Wall of course. Waking up at about 9am, I looked out to see that heavy fog was everywhere. I couldn't even see the other side of the parking lot. Not exactly great nature viewing weather. Hoping that the fog would burn off, I headed the few blocks to the world famous Wall Drug. It was about as tacky as I'd guessed, a fun stop but certainly not a destination. I stalled a little more by having an early lunch at the soda fountain. By the time I was done it was about noon, the fog was still around but this was the time I had so i figured that I'd see what I could see.

Luckily for me, the fog disappeared by the time I got to Badlands National park. It completely surprised me though. I was just driving through endless prairie when i saw the sign for the park. I had seen some pictures of the Badlands, but I really had no idea what to expect. Off in the distance I could see what looked like som rock formations, but they were still far off when U saw a sign for a 'scenic overlook.' Overlooking what? When i reached to the overlook I realized that Badlands were eroded out from under me. I was already at the rim of the canyon. Let me say now to anyone reading this, if you ever get the chance to go...it's amazing. It seems like a Mars landscape. These canyons go hundreds of feet deep and the rocks are so many different colors. The landscape almost seemed unreal. As I was going through the park, I saw a turnoff for 'prairie dog town.' These little guys take over whole fields at a time making countless burrows. The 'town' that I went to had to have a few thousand of them. As I walked up, I could hear many of them 'chirping' at me and whenever I got too close, they'd disappear into the tunnels. Finally on the way out, I stopped again as I passed a wild herd of Bison. These guys are humongous and seemingly nothing but muscle. They saw me and seemed to not really care, I wasn't going to push my luck though. Thirty feet away was close enough.

After the Badlands, I set the GPS to take me to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills. It's funny to see, because the Black Hills are only thirty miles from the Badlands and the prairie but they are actually an offshoot of the Rockies. Flat...flat...flat...boom! mountains. Mount Rushmore was in the Southern part of the park so it took me about an hour to get to it. Pictures can't really show how majestic the moutain is. I ended up taking a trail around the heads and my camera got a real workout, thank god for digital photography.

I ended the day by driving to Deadwood, SD, which is on the northern edge of the black hills. For those of you who don't know, this town is one of the most sucessful historic restorations in the country. This town has quite a history: after gold was found, it became a roaring lawless place. Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane both met their ends on the streets of Deadwood, and there are markers to show where. Gaming has given the town the money to restore all most of the buildings and, luckily for me, gaming makes staying and eating here pretty cheap. I'm staying at the "Iron Horse Inn" which is an actual 1870's hotel that has been restored. It's really beautiful and a neat experience in and of itself. I ended up walking around the town after watching American Idol and having a Prime Rib dinner for $6 (yay, gambling towns). I actually ended up puting a dollar into the penny video slot machines. I had no clue how to 'win' since it seemed to have no rhyme or reason to it. My dollar was almost gone when I got four of the same symbol and won fifteen bucks! Not only that, they saw me playing and gave me a free drink to boot. I'm not a huge gambling person, at least not slots. So I took my fifteen bucks, finished my drink and headed back. Free dinner, free beer and a couple of bucks left. A great end to an awesome day.

Tomorrow I'll be heading through Sturgis and on to West Yellowstone, MT so that I can take a 'snowcoach' tour of Yellowstone. Westward, ho!