Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Our last day in the Black Hills we decided we would drive out to see the Badlands. We had pretty low expectations for this National Park. It doesn’t hit any of the ‘must see’ lists, and we’ve become pretty desensitized to national parks, and rocks in general. We set out intending to just drive through the park, take a little look, and spend a little time outside of the house. The Badlands ended up being a spectacular afternoon, after we left Wall Drug.

The entire drive to the Badlands from Rapid City there were signs promoting Wall Drug. I’m talking signs every couple of miles, claiming that this store was going to change your life. They had everything – souvenirs, homemade pie, 5 cent coffee, ice cream, boots. Based on the amount of advertising, and the lack of any other options, we figured we would stop and check out this store that was claiming to be able to change our life. I think they might have put all their energy into the advertisement and forgot to actually provide anything better than the Ellis Brother’s mall.

The Badlands had elements of Death Valley – I actually think I liked it better. It was way more accessible, not nearly as big and there was virtually no other people in the park. We got our first look at some wildlife. We spotted prairie dogs, some elk and bison.

After we stopped at the canyon overlook we drove our way through the rest of the park. The rocks were absolutely gorgeous. There were so many colours. The highlight for the girls was the clay – we stopped to take a couple pictures and the ground was a bit mucky – because it was almost entirely made of clay. We scooped up a handful for each of the girls and they had a great time moulding it on the rest of the drive.