Summer Trip 2008: From the Badlands to Mount Rushmore

Today was another great day. It looked like it was going to rain when we first got up this morning and it did sprinkle on us a bit during a ranger-led geology walk. One of the boys was not too thrilled with the lecture aspect of the walk and was predicting torrential downpours and tornadoes if we did not seek the comfort of the car immediately. The rain clouds went away from the sky and the child within a few minutes and all was well.

I was struck by the fact that we were encouraged to climb all over the rock formations. I was

especially glad when the ranger himself said that it was fine to climb on the formations because Sherrill was skeptical in spite of printed literature I showed her. If the Badlands were in Maryland they would be roped off with "No Trespassing" signs. The fact that a gentle slope up to the top of a hill can lead to a precipitous drop on the other side led me to believe I should approve all ventures before they were undertaken. The boys proved to be extremely adventurous with a healthy dose of caution when they climbed. There were very few times when I had to decline the request to climb higher. The daredevil of the

group is Conner. Nathan is a very protective big brother and there were many times last night and today that he would yell out "No!!" when Conner asked to scale a hill. The times when I overruled Nathan, he turned his back and told me that he refused to watch.

We hiked a trail last night after dinner and the first three pictures were taken on that hike. If you click on the first picture and look closely you can see people up in the hills. That is the top of the Notch Trail which we hiked today. I got some great pictures from that same spot. The second

picture is of a deer that was about twenty feet away from us having dinner in a thicket. Conner is holding the moon in the next picture. The picture further down that has what look to be bird's nests made out of made are in fact bird's nests made out of mud.

The Notch Trail was rated as strenuous but we were ready for it. It was just difficult enough that the boys exerted themselves scrambling up and down over hills and boulders but was short enough that we didn't overdo it. The frequent signs to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes gave

Sherrill some pause but we didn't see any as it turned out.

After the hikes were over we bade farewell to the Badlands and headed west. A few miles up the road was one of the sites for a Minuteman Missile. There was a guided tour given by cell phone. We called a number and put it on speaker and hit keys for different spots along the way. It was very effective and informative. The man narrating the tour did not sound like the kind of guy you would want with the launch codes but he did seem well informed.

From there we were off to Wall, South Dakota for some lunch. There are over 300 signs for Wall on Interstate 90 (I asked at the counter when we were ordering) but it seemed like we saw more than that. Our lunch was delicious and afterwards we explored the myriad of shops adjoining the drug store. Christopher bought a really neat looking pocketknife, and Nathan and I went mining for gemstones.

After that we headed to our hotel for the night a few miles away from Mount Rushmore. We got checked in and watched National Treasure 2