This next part of the story needs to be told in 4 separate parts. 1) Leaving for the Badlands, The Badlands, 2) Post Badlands (Welcome to Interior!) and 3) Leaving the Badlands and 4) The Rush to Rushmore.
Before we left our KOA campsite in Belvidere SD we talked to the people who owned the place and talked with them about visiting the Badlands and the best way to go about doing it. I know what you are asking yourself right now, "Was the camp in Belvidere run by an overweight Englishman?" and "Were there any Bob Euker sightings?" The answer is "no" to both.
The couple who ran the place were a lovely couple, Betty and her husband, we'll call him George. George looks like actor/comedian George Lopez, but sounds like professional wrestler Razor Ramon when he speaks, meaning that whenever he said, "The badlands," I had to chuckle a bit inside.
So we get to the hay bail, and Christine needs a boost to get on top. She puts her foot into my cuffed hands and I feel a horrid stinging sensation. Cactus. She had stepped on a cactus and it stuck to her shoe, which in turn stuck into my hand. Needless to say Christine didn't get on top of the hay bail, rather she settled for a picture on the side of it.
After looking at the door/window area we decided to go to our camp site, set up our tent, unpack, eat lunch and head back out to the Badlands. We were both exhausted and I think that neither one of us would have argued with each other if we had decided to pack it in and stay there for the day. There were 3 major things that kept us from staying. 1) The heat. It was just way too hot to stay there and do nothing. The Badlands at least had a nice breeze. 2) We had traveled all this way and didn't want to rush the next day spending time exploring the Badlands and going to Mount Rushmore. 3) I was once again being eaten by bugs. I cannot really express how many bug bites I have gotten in our last 2 camp sites. Thankfully, the Badlands is a desert and there are few (if any) mosquitoes there.
The next fun thing we saw was a field filled with Prairie Dogs. We have some great video of this, unfortunately we cannot load it up here. They were cute little things, made these weird high pitched noises and probably hated the fact that there were so many people stopping to walk over their field to look at them. I had a picture on my cellphone, but it came out too blurry to be able to actually put up.
Before we left our KOA campsite in Belvidere SD we talked to the people who owned the place and talked with them about visiting the Badlands and the best way to go about doing it. I know what you are asking yourself right now, "Was the camp in Belvidere run by an overweight Englishman?" and "Were there any Bob Euker sightings?" The answer is "no" to both.
The couple who ran the place were a lovely couple, Betty and her husband, we'll call him George. George looks like actor/comedian George Lopez, but sounds like professional wrestler Razor Ramon when he speaks, meaning that whenever he said, "The badlands," I had to chuckle a bit inside.
Instead of stopping at our camp, just outside the Badlands we decided it would be a good idea to go directly to the Badlands, so we could go there and explore, before we had an opportunity to sit down and get tired. On our way to the Badlands Christine and I stopped off at a "scenic viewpoint" of a grassy field. Christine found this the chance to get her picture taken next to a hay bail. One of those huge, rolled up ones you see a lot in farm country. So we walked over to the hay bail, through a tall grass, insects (big surprise) and tiny cactus. We walked carefully through the field, in case there were snakes or anything harmful all the while trying to avoid stepping on a cactus.
So we get to the hay bail, and Christine needs a boost to get on top. She puts her foot into my cuffed hands and I feel a horrid stinging sensation. Cactus. She had stepped on a cactus and it stuck to her shoe, which in turn stuck into my hand. Needless to say Christine didn't get on top of the hay bail, rather she settled for a picture on the side of it.
Our second stop on the way to the Badlands was at this sign. If you can't see the name of the town, it is "Philip". And there underneath it is me.. Philip, how appropriate. This required yet another trip through a high, insect ridden field.
Now we pick up business and get to the actual Badlands. The Badlands really are fantastic. The weathered mountains and scenery that seems to go on for miles are really breath taking and a spectacle like no other. We started off at the "window/ door" part. The window is one of the giant rock structures that people can climb on, while getting a view of part of the Badlands and taking pictures. The next part is the door, that leads into a decent section of the Badlands that people can walk through. Here are some of the pictures we took while in the Badlands. Please keep in mind there were taken with my cellphone camera and we have much better ones along with some spectacular video we can show when we get home.
After looking at the door/window area we decided to go to our camp site, set up our tent, unpack, eat lunch and head back out to the Badlands. We were both exhausted and I think that neither one of us would have argued with each other if we had decided to pack it in and stay there for the day. There were 3 major things that kept us from staying. 1) The heat. It was just way too hot to stay there and do nothing. The Badlands at least had a nice breeze. 2) We had traveled all this way and didn't want to rush the next day spending time exploring the Badlands and going to Mount Rushmore. 3) I was once again being eaten by bugs. I cannot really express how many bug bites I have gotten in our last 2 camp sites. Thankfully, the Badlands is a desert and there are few (if any) mosquitoes there.
So we go back to the Badlands where I notice this sign. 
I am not going to lie. I think at this point I was rooting to be bitten by one. For a few reasons. The first being, that there as no way a rattle snake bite could be half as bad as the 10,000 mosquitoe bites I have received in the last 4 days. The second reason is, if I get bitten, I can at least spend a few days in a hospital bed, away from all the bugs and mosquitoes (I would find out later that this probably wasn't a good idea). Finally, if I get bitten I can yell, "My God! The rattlesnake as struck!!"
Well, I didn't get bitten and we wound up climbing up "Settler's Point". It was a narrow, steep trail that settlers used to have to climb down with their horses and they now allow people to climb it, so they can see how difficult the original settlers had it. I wasn't impressed. It was a pretty easy climb, so in this case I was left little unimpressed by the hardships the settlers faced.
When we reached the top we saw this bunny rabbit. Apparently bunny rabbits here have little fear, as this guy let us get up very close to him to take a picture.
The next fun thing we saw was a field filled with Prairie Dogs. We have some great video of this, unfortunately we cannot load it up here. They were cute little things, made these weird high pitched noises and probably hated the fact that there were so many people stopping to walk over their field to look at them. I had a picture on my cellphone, but it came out too blurry to be able to actually put up.
We finally left at around 6p.m and instead of going right back to camp, we headed into the town of Interior, South Dakota. We will continue our story of Interior in our next blog. This story involves a small town, Donny almost getting me killed 10,000miles away and a bizzare mixture for a Bloody Mary.
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"That's my '51 Dodge. No, that's my car! That's my car! Whooee! All my youth and passion...spent in that back seat. It's all gone, you see? It's all gone--rust and dust."
-Bobby
Deliverance (1972)
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