Badlands to Buffalo

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Monday 6.16.14

Today we woke up in the badlands. We took a some time working the campground showers, and packing up. We hiked into the rock formations, and touched the crumbly sandstone and discovered different paths. A three legged rabbit kept us amused. In a different part of the a badlands, ( it just kept going on and on!) we walked through to look at fossils, and we're equally disappointed at the lack of. None the less, we brought some 'specimens' back that we thought could possibly be fossils. On our way out of the park, my well practiced wildlife scanning eye spied a female elk about 350 yards away. We used the binoculars for the first time!

Pulling into Wall Drug, we walked through the iconic little tourist village, and saw all kids of amusements. The girls were really checking out all of the deer racks on the wall. (You can take the girl out of Benton,....) some ice cream cones at the old fashioned counter, and we were on the the road.

We headed off to Mt Rushmore, and about 10 mins into the trip, I realized I have lost the bank card out of my wallet. My poor husband; he doesn't lose things.... Anyway, we drove the beautiful Black Hills up to Mt Rushmore. The family decided Teddy really got the short end of the stick on the the rock face deal. Sorta like they stuck him in the crack as an after thought. I was wanted to do hither historical film/learning thing, but the girls quickly rattled off the story of its creation, so off we drove! Sad to see the blight of the mountain pine beetle ruining the entire forest.

The road dew headed towards the west was under construction, and I mean it was like driving past construction on he the hunting shanty road. Down in the ghost towns of central Wyoming, we were amazed at the huge trains of bentonite heading into the hills. We also passed lots of oil wells and open prairie.

Hotel stop, Buffalo, WY. Sleeping under the giant Rockies looming to out west. Some pool unwinding, and cooking ramens on huge hot plate in the bathroom. We then reordered Pizza Hut ouzo hold us over.

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