We had a relatively short drive today, only 156 miles, first stop was the famous Wall Drug, a tourist stop that has everything from a restaurant with 5 cent coffee, shops that sell boots, clothes, jewelry and souvenirs, candy and ice cream shops, even a 80' high dinosaur. This was all started in 1931 by Ted and Dorothy Hustead with the bright idea to offer free ice water to weary travelers to get them to stop at their store, you can still get free ice water today.

The Badlands. This is one of the areas that I have been looking forward to, parked on the rim of the Badlands canyon in the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, boondocking for three nights. There are no campgrounds here, you turn off the main road and follow the gravel road until you hit the rim, drive along the rim until you find a place you want to camp. You are totally self-reliant for power and water. It was interesting sit on the rim, view the canyon below, watch the other campers settle in and the cows that decided to visit some campers for a while. I am talking a small herd, 50-60 cows by their campers, I am sure that was a pleasant aroma with the temps in the high 90's!

The Badlands live up to their name, the Lokota Tribe called them "mako sica" or bad land, French fur traders called them “les mauvaises terres a traverser,” roughly "bad lands to traverse." These striking geologic deposits and pinnacles are awe inspiring, beautiful, hostile, unforgiving, hot, windy and dusty. We drove the loop road in the morning, walking some of the trials, stopped at the Visitor Center and many pullouts to see the ever-changing views and vistas. It is striking to see the high pinnacles formed by weathering and erosion over the centuries and the grasslands mixed in and surrounding them. It was very hot, triple digits so cooled down back at the unit and took an evening drive on Sage Creek Rim road looking for wildlife. While we didn't see any buffalo, we did see elk and prairie dogs as a well as a beautiful sunset.

Being so hot, very windy and dusty, we decided to pack up a day early and move to a campground in Rapid City.

Stats: 156 miles, diesel fill up, two stops, one 35 gal, the other 55 gal to top off.
Weather: hot, triple digits again during the day, 70's at night, windy and a severe thunderstorm late at night. Lighting was mesmerizing, fortunately the predicted 60mph winds missed us.
Pictures: Rim camping, The Badlands, Pat's new friend, Parrie Dogs and sunset.