We checked out of our hotel and headed to the falls at Sioux Falls this morning. I had thought about skipping this event because we had so many things on our agenda for the day. I'm so glad we didn't! It was an amazing sight! Not only were the falls incredible, the rocks were something like I had never seen. We spent longer than we originally planned here just because there was quite a bit of exploring to be done. After we explored the falls area, we went across the bridge (which provided a fabulous view of the falls) and saw the ruins that were left from a mill that used to be there. Back in the 1800s it had been a six story brick building that produced thousands of pounds of flour. After reading about the mill, we decided that we better head West.
We drove a couple of hours and stopped at the rest stop at Chamberlain, SD. If you drive this way, stop here. It overlooks the Missouri River, and the visitor's center is a little museum of Lewis and Clark. They have a replica of the boat that the explorers would have taken on that incredible journey. I had no idea the actual size of the boat, and was surprised that they were able to haul it around the areas of the river too dangerous to take it down. There is also a fifty foot tall stainless steel statue of an Indian woman that is quite a sight. We spent a little more time here than we would have normally between the museum and the hike to overlook the river. Both worth the time.
We were scheduled to go see the Minuteman Missile Silos on our way to the Badlands. I didn't check the closing time online though, and we missed them by a few minutes. We were able to go to the museum for the missiles as it stayed open an hour longer then the missiles themselves. So, if you go, go early! The museum had a ton of interesting stuff about the Cold War, our missiles verses the Russian missiles and interesting facts from that time period. The kids enjoyed it as much as we did. I even bought a magnet.....
The Badlands are just a few miles down the road from the museum, and we headed that way with much anticipation about what we would see. Right before you enter the Badlands there is the infamous Prairie Dog Town. At the end of the day when we asked our kids what their favorite thing was, all four of them emphatically agreed it was Prairie Dog Town. There is a fenced area where tons of little fat prairie dogs have made their homes. The desire to walk out there amongst them is strong when you pull up because they are adorable, but go in the little shop first. In there you find the prairie dog food i.e. peanuts. They sell little bags of peanuts for you to feed the prairie dogs. They only charge $1 each bag, which I thought was very reasonable. The kids all got a bag and headed out to feed the little critters. Prairie dogs are much smaller than I thought they would be. I was expecting them to be closer to the size of a groundhog, but they are a good bit tinier. We started out tossing our peanuts to the prairie dogs, but soon found that if you sat still enough they would come and take the peanut right out of your hand. It was especially enthralling to the kids that the little critters would come right up to them, take the peanut, and then sit up on their haunches right by their feet and eat the peanut. It was very cute. After we successfully distributed our peanuts, we went back into the shop and the kids bought all the prairie dog souvenirs that they could.
It was now much later then we had planned to be in the Badlands, but I was determined to do everything we had planned while we were there. We were all awestruck by the first overlook. I had seen pictures online, but again, there are reasons you have to see things for yourself. The pictures couldn't grasp the beauty and wonder of this place. I'm not sure how to describe the terrain as the rock that the hills were made out of was very unfamiliar to me. It almost looked desserty, but it's not desert. I highly recommend driving the whole Badlands Loop Road. Stop at all the overlooks you can because the terrain changes so often throughout the park. One minute you are looking at these rock hills and formations and the next at the vast prairie.
The highlight of this part of our trip was our hike on the Notch Trail. The trail itself is not overly long ( a little over a mile) or very strenuous, but it has some amazing things that make it memorable. First, to get to the upper part of the trail you have to climb a long log ladder. It looks very impressive from the bottom or top. I found it much more difficult to go down it then I did up it. After we reached the top of the ladder, we hiked the ridge of the canyon. This part was a little scary for my because I have small children and you are literally hiking the edge. After you hike the ridge for awhile the trail takes you back down to the bottom. In the lower area of the trail, Kade and Rylie both thought they found dinosaur bones. I didn't want to discourage them, but when they started digging, Dan put a stop to the excavation saying we didn't want to get arrested. After our short excavation, we got back on the trial and followed it back up to the ridge. The trail comes to a sudden end o the edge of cliff high enough up that you can see for miles! The view was breathtaking!
By this time it was getting late. We still had over half the park to see, but time was not on our side. As the sun went down we drove most of the rest of the loop without stopping. Not only are the views good in this park, the wildlife is abundant. There are deer, antelope, big horned sheep, buffalo, and prairie dogs.. Probably more also, but these are the ones we saw. After the sun went down there was the most amazing full moon that rose over the prairie. It was so bright that it lit up the prairie enough that we could still see some of the wildlife. Coming from the hills of Arkansas, seeing the moon come up over the flatlands was a fantastic way to end and already great, full day.
We drove the rest of the way to our hotel in Keystone, SD.
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