Today we took a spin through the Badlands National Park of South Dakota. Despite the frightening name, the Badlands are a remarkable area where erosion and time have created a fanciful landscape, as long as you do not need to cross it on foot, on a horse or riding in a wagon. There are fabulous minarets, knife-sharp ridges, deep basins, narrow canyons and massive caves and holes within the soil that exhibit myriad pastel colors. There are many box canyons and virtually no level ground can be found. If I was coming through here during the pioneer days, I would have figured out a way around the Badlands because going through them would have been extremely challenging.
We spotted many prairie dogs, some vultures, Bighorn sheep and a mule deer fawn but no bison. The animals that live here must be very tough because the terrain is extremely convoluted and water is quite scarse. Even the park picnic areas we drove by had no water. However, the scenery is absolutely sensational and we drove the entire distance of UT-240 both ways to admire the scenery in the changing light.
The town of Wall, home to Wall Drug, is at one end of UT-240 but we have been there before and we elected to give it a pass this time. The last time we were there, we noted they sold original cowboy attire made in Asia, Indian crafts made in Taiwan, western fancy shirts made by dutiful Indonesians and lots of other foreign stuff like coffee cups and cheesy cowboy boots manufactured in far-flung exotic locations outside the U.S. They offer free ice water and 5 cent coffee to travelers passing by on the freeway. Wall Drug also has a gigantic advertising area along the entire freeway in South Dakota, some other locations within the U.S. and overseas. I saw a sign indicating it was only 6,200 miles to Wall Drug when I was boarding a sightseeing barge in Amsterdam. I understand they have signs in Iraq, too.
We took some photos in the Badlands. Click the asterisk to see them *