Our destination for today was the Badlands of South Dakota (I never realized before, but there are Badlands in North Dakota too.)  We filled our propane tank for the first time on this entire trip before we left our campground at Custer Crazy Horse in SD.  The kids really enjoyed a unique soda shop that we had found in Hill City and were able to get discounted refills in their previously purchased cups, so we stopped by the soda shop on the way out. 

The kids were evidently chatting with the employees and told them that there were 10 children in our family, to which the employees responded by giving them two large bags of free popcorn.  Needless to say, we had some happy kids at the start of our journey that day!

Our drive to the Badlands was only around 2 hours.  We stopped at the visitor center first and took in the film before beginning our drive.  We considered doing a short, easy hike or two, but it was on the hot side outside, and we decided not to push Alex.  Alex, though, was suggesting a really cool-sounding hike that was absolutely not a good idea for her to do (typical Alex).  Instead, we just stayed in the comfort of our air-conditioned vehicles and ventured out periodically to take pictures, read signs, and just admire the views.

The Badlands are gorgeous but seem very inhospitable to much human life.  I was never able to ask the question, but I was constantly wondering how well bison survive there too.  In areas there was definitely grass for them to eat, but I just wonder how close they get to the edge of some of the canyons or if their weight could even just make some portions of the sandy-looking cliffs disintegrate beneath them.

Following the Badlands, we began our drive to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.  Talk about some grasslands…

Rebecca