Badlands National Park

    We started our trek across South Dakota first thing in the morning with the goal of reaching Badlands National Park around lunch time. It's our first park of the trip so we were anxious to get there. We drove through some really pretty prairie and took a break at our first rest stop with no trees.

    The sky darkened and soon we were driving through a storm. The rain lasted all the way to the park entrance so we ducked into the visitor center to wait it out. They had really cool displays on the geology of the park and Emma loved all of the stuff about fossils. We even took in the movie about the park which allowed me to shut my eyes for a few minutes.

    The rain was still going so we jumped in the car to do the loop around the park. The colors of all the rocks were amazing and along some cliffs we saw our first dripping wet bighorn sheep. Eventually, we drove west enough to escape the rain and soon after we came across a massive bison along the road. It was unsettling each time he motioned toward the car, but still an awesome experience. He was walking among a prairie dog town so we got to enjoy them popping up and down too.

    We moved on and Emma spotted a pronghorn antelope for everyone to enjoy along with thousands of more prairie dogs. She then found a little parliament of burrowing owls. Except for ferrets, we saw all of the grassland species we were hoping to see. It was a great drive, but as we drove back toward the visitor center the rain started back up.

    Even worse news was finding out that the campground had filled up. So we said goodbye to the Badlands and drove toward Mount Rushmore where we got a hotel for the night. We're excited for our next stops!