Wednesday July 21st we drove down SD-240, the Badlands Loop Road, to visit the famous scenery in this area. The Badlands were formed basically when water runoff from the Black Hills washed down onto the prairie area east of the Hills and washed away the soft sandstone and ash, leaving fantastic gullies and watersheds that create the tortured look of the land here. It is desolate, and at the same time beautiful and in constant contrast between the grasslands and the washed away landscape. We drove slowly around the loop road, stopping at most of the turn-outs to take a short walk and read about the landscape. Took a side trip out a dirt road to the Prairie Dog town. Saw the Bison herd at a distance only. If you are driving down I-90 in the area it is worth a day to see. Don't miss it.
We also discovered an old Minute Man Missile silo Museum where they were giving tours right at the intersection of I-90/SD-240. The tours were booked up a week in advance, so will have to plan for that next time we are in the area.
While here we also did the Wall Drug tour for a couple of hours. Interesting, reminds me of "South of the Border", but ten times more interesting. Now that we have been here, we don't need to come back to Wall.
I am getting this in a full week late because of a lack of WiFi until we got down to Richmond, Indiana where I am posting this from.
