July 17th & 18th Badlands National Park and Minuteman Missile NHS

July 17th: After a restful night in Cabeba's RV parking lot we readied the trailer and then took advantage of their free RV dump station before hitting the road. We made a quick stop at the famous Corn Palace where we viewed new murals being added to the outside of the building and the permanent murals inside. After an easy 5 hour tow westbound on Route 90 we arrived at Badlands National Park. After purchasing our park pass we headed in and we were amazed by the unusual rock formations which seemed to change color as the sun went in and out behind clouds. As we did not have reservations for a campsite our first destination was Cedar Pass Campground to inquire about available sites. Lucky for us lots of folks had pulled out that morning so we had a large choice of slots. We selected a site that overlooked a wall of sculpted spires and set up camp for the next two nights. Cedar Pass Campground is near the visitor center and is part of the National Park. It does not have hookups, but has nice bath houses and a RV dump station. The price was right too: $10.00 per night with a $1.00 fee to dump and fill domestic water tanks. This campground rarely fills up, mainly because the temperature at the park at this time of year is normally around 100 degrees and there isn't any shade. We were fortunate that the park was having odd weather at the time of our visit. It was in the mid 70s during the day and in the 50s at night making it very pleasant!

After setting up camp we headed over to the Ben Reifel Visitor Center to view the award winning video that outlines the geology and history of the park and to wander through the excellent exhibits which cover geology, fossils, wildlife and park history. We also took some time to talk to a ranger to find out what programs the park offered that day and from them we selected to take a guided prairie walk and to attend a night sky program. The prairie walk was very informative and one of it's highlights was being shown a recently discovered fossil! Very cool. As there was a few hours before the night sky program we went back to our trailer to have some dinner and enjoy the sun setting over the buttes and spires. It was truly beautiful, the colors of rock formations changed before our eyes as the sun slipped down in the west. Just before 9:00pm we headed up to the campgrounds amphitheater to the night sky program. It was outstanding! It was done in two parts. The first part being a slide show about what there is to see in the night sky and the second part was a star party where we viewed distance galaxies, stars and the milky way. The sky is still very dark in the Badlands (not too much light pollution) so the milky way seems to stretch out forever and it looked like rolling storm clouds. It was fantastic! We finally left the program and headed back to our trailer at 12:45am tired but excited by everything we had seen and done that day.

July 18th: We slept in a bit as we had been up wicked late the night before. After breakfast I packed up a picnic lunch as Leon picked up the trailer and then we headed out to drive the park's loop road (it really isn't a loop though). We drove through a combination of prairies, peaks, gullies and buttes with the colors of the rocks changing with the light. We stopped at most scenic overlooks to admire the scenery and to scan the area for wildlife. We saw mule deer, a wild goat and lots of cute prairie dogs! At one of our stops we enjoyed a fossil talk with a park volunteer. As the Badlands were once under a shallow inland sea many fossils have been found (and are still being found) within the park boundaries. In the mid afternoon we exited Badlands NP and headed to Minuteman Missile NHS. It was fascinating! We were able to look down into the missile silo and see a deactivated Minuteman Missile. Using our cell phones we were able to hear the history of the missile program, why South Dakota was selected as a major missile site, the present state of our missile program and it's future. We stopped briefly at the Minuteman Missile NHS Visitor Center so I could get my passport stamp canceled and then we headed back to camp to enjoy dinner, another beautiful sunset and a second night sky program.

Spectacular is the word that sums up Badlands National Park. GO THERE!