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Published: July 17th 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
It's 9 in the morning and beautiful out. We had just finished driving all night just to get to a place called The Badlands - a place that neither of us had ever really heard of. What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be; well, other than the $15 entrance fee. Honestly, $15 just to drive through a 30 mile stretch of land seems a little excessive....but the views were worth it. We stopped to take pictures at many of the viewpoints along the scenic byway. It was cool that everything was open and accessible; you could hike on trails and even go out an walk on the rocks pretty much anywhere. It would be easy to spend more than a few hours here; you could spend days hiking and camping too. As we drove through the park, we were awed by the different formations and colors. It was so peaceful and quiet there; it was definitely worth the extra time to get there.
As we left the Badlands in search of the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore, we were diverted into the small town of Wall. Such a funny little western town; the main
The Badlands
The amazingly beautiful colors of the Badlandsattraction is the Wall Drug store that must've been 2 blocks long! Throughout the entire state of South Dakota the billboards along the highway had advertised this drug store, so we couldn't pass it by. We took a few minutes to persue the store, reluctantly passed on their homemade donuts, then exited and went up the street so we could have Subway. This is likely Subway stop #12 at this point. We can now tell you every sub that's on the $5 footlong menu. And even funnier, this won't be our last Subway stop of the day...we will find another one in just a few more hours.
Moving on, it was close to an hour before we made it to Mt. Rushmore. You can see it from the road a little ways ahead and it was pretty cool! Before this stop, neither of us could likely tell you who the four presidents were who were on it, but now we know: Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, & Lincoln. Pretty impressive, huh? Another entrance fee to get into the park and we walked in to take our pictures and learn a few new things. We even sat through two short movies
The Presidents
Washington, Jefferson, T.Roosevelt, Lincoln...who knew? We learned that they were selected b/c they all stood for growth & change in America. that explained about how the carvings were done. It was really interesting...it was designed by Gutzon Borglum, an artist, who didn't even begin the project until his late 50's. He died before finishing the carvings, so his son finished them for him. What was really cool was seeing how the hundreds of workers on the mountain actually carved it. They said 90percent of the carvings were actually done with explosives. What a cool place!
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Jen Burcham
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Yes, Jen should have been a model!
Fantastic pictures. You have now saved me the $15 should I ever be in that part of the country. This was kind of like our trip to Oahu for spring break. Jay really wanted to go to Pearl Harbor, but I told him I saw it on the Brady Bunch. In the end, I was glad that we spent the better part of the day (yes, that is how long it took because in my effort to be "green", I made us take the bus!) going to see it as it was very moving. While you both are exploring new sites, I have been teaching an SEI class and getting my room ready for August 11. Somehow I don't think I am having quite as much fun. Off to do some tedious errands and hit the gym. Are you headed to the Pacific Coast yet? I am really excited to see those pictures!. They have a bunch of wineries in Oregon, so you could probably do some more free drinking!