Our Trip West: The Badlands!!!

South Dakota prairie

Badlands National Park

Oh my gosh! All I could say all day was WOW! I have never seen anything as different, unique and strangely beautiful as the Badlands. This place arose out of the green prairie like something from a science fiction movie. First we were driving along I-90 seeing the pic to the left. When we reached our exit to go towards Badlands National Park. Here we drove into the park paid $15 (good up to 7 days!) and saw the picture below. These pictures do not even begin to show the magnitude of these two places. At home, it is hard to see much because of trees and homes and visual clutter. But out on the prairie all you see literally is green grasses from horizon to horizon! It is the most beautiful place I think I have ever been. Different than the beach with it's vast ocean but still vast in it's own way. I am attaching several pictures of the Badlands. A couple with Tom and I in them and then you might be able to tell just how big this place is. It was so different from what we had seen all day coming across the state. I mentioned yesterday, the Corn Palace I am putting pictures on of that place. It is unique in that the murals on the sides are changed each year to depict a different theme. Today as we were leaving Mitchell, SD, there were kids there and others finishing up the side of the building and it's murals. Really quite neat.