September 20, 2007 – More Badlands and Sightseeing

This morning we made our way from the campground to the north end of the park and made a few stops at the overlooks and did a short nature hike.

Here is a picture of the campground from one of the overlooks:
From there we went to the missile silo – 16 miles away. One of the things that I did not know was that these silos were not top secret. This one is about ½ mile from I-90 in the middle of a ranch. Here is a picture:

A closer picture:

The missile you see standing is a sensor and the glass is for observation only – it would have been covered by a thick block.

Here is the silo with the missile (unarmed):

It was an incredible tour. Next time we are here we will definitely make advanced reservations for the control facility. (The silo is 11 miles away from the control area.)

From there, we stopped at Wall Drug for lunch. Here is my hero (I just loved her boots and cigar):

And Andy’s new friend:

Then we did the loop road in the Badlands. The Badlands separates the upper from the lower prairie and is 60 miles long. It is known as the Badlands Wall (and that is how the town of Wall got its name). The Wall is constantly retreating as it erodes to the valley below. And in some of the stops we made, we could see where they have moved the overlooks due to the erosion.

A picture of the upper prairie:

This is where the upper prairie meets the wall:

The lower prairie:

And more incredible scenery along the way:

It was so amazing to see all of this. We were here 10 years ago and this place still fascinates us!

Right by the park is a historic landmark – Prairie Homestead. This is an original home of people who homesteaded these 160 acres in 1909.

Here is a picture of the house:

And inside:

There was a lot of information there and in the Badlands loop on the homesteaders. What a hearty group of people!

And the current owners of this homestead have the only white prairie dog town in the world:


Aren’t they cute!!!

And another incredible sunset and moonrise tonight!

We had a very hot day today – 95 degrees. But at least the nights get cool!!

September 19, 2007 – The Badlands

Today we left the Black Hills and headed out into the prairie.

And of course no prairie is complete without these little guys:



(I am driving Andy crazy with pictures of prairie dogs and wanting to stop at every prairie dog town.) These guys were at a wayside park and we bought peanuts to feed them. (Looks like a LOT of other tourists also feed them. )

We are camped at the Cedar Pass Campground in the Badlands. After setting up camp, we went first to the Minuteman Missile National Park Visitor Center (right up the road from the Badlands). This is America’s newest NP and right now it contains a very small visitor center (new one to be finished in ~5 years); the Delta-01 Launch Control Facility and the Delta-09 Launch Facility. As the deactivation of the Minuteman II missile sites progressed, employees of the USAF and the NP worked towards preservation of a representative site and this is it.

In the visitor center, we saw a video on the launch control facility and had a really nice chat with the ranger. We were unable to get on the tour to the control facility (they are booked to next Tuesday) but tomorrow we will be able to see the launch facility. Since this is a relatively new park, they are still in the process of getting a permanent visitor center as well as more staffing to be able to run more tours. So we were disappointed on not being able to see the control facility. (Just a heads up for anyone heading this way – make your reservations early.)

From there, we went to the Badlands visitor center – some sites along the way:





Isn’t this incredible – it almost looks like another world!!


Back at camp, we watched an incredible sunset followed by an incredible moonrise. There is a lot of wind today also – 15 to 30 MPH. Only propane stoves are allowed outside – no campfires.

Such fantastic scenery!

Oh, I did find out that the howling/yapping we heard last night was from the coyotes. Eerie!

Miles Traveled: 114
Routes Traveled:
South Dakota: US-385; MT-44; I-190; I-90