Checking out the Badlands SD

WHERE ARE WE? Cedar Pass Campground, Badlands National Park. 

NEXT DESTINATION? South

We had the whole boondocking spot to ourselves last night near the Missouri River, so we slept like a log.  Up and atter this morning with the intention of getting to the Badlands of SD by this afternoon.  It wasn't long and we arrived in Wall SD.  We had travelled through a long stretch of Indian Reservations today where gas was $2.69 a gallon and I thought nothing of it.  When we arrived in Wall, I realized that the Jeep was really low on fuel so I had better get some fuel.  Guess what?  We are in tourist county so the price of fuel was now $3.69!!  Just my luck.  Well that was our welcome to Wall South Dakota.  As you probably know Wall is famous for Wall Drug.  It is a complex that covers a city block and is definitely made for tourists but we had to see it once in our life.

Wall Drug was started back in the 30's and became successful after deciding to put a sign on the highway offering free "Ice Water".  Back in the day there was no AC in cars and people coming to see the badlands had to drive a long way to get there and they were thirsty by the time they got to Wall so they stopped for Ice Water and the owner would sell them ice cream as well.  They went on to attract up to 20000 people a day in the high tourist season and they sell way more than Ice Cream. They still boast free Ice Water and 5 cent coffee!!

There were lots of animated characters in the place.  We always have fun with these kind of things.

I even found an old friend and she sat with me for a picture.  The trouble with old age is that I can't remember names well so don't ask me who she was.

I also may have signed some talent for our "Music in the Park" back home at CJ's.  What do you think Dave?  Can we work them in?

From Wall we headed south a few miles into the Badlands National Park.  We were going to boondock up on the plateau just outside the park, but some nasty weather moved in and we ran into wind and rain so decided to head another 20 miles into the park to a campground in the valley.  We bought our Annual National Park and Recreation Area pass for $80 because we will use it lots here and in Utah and Las Vegas.  We more than get our money out of this pass.  It started raining when I was buying the pass and by the time we made it to the first lookout over the badlands, it was pouring.  We stopped there to wait it out for about and hour.

So we decided that as soon as it quit raining we would head to the campground and continue our tour tomorrow in the Jeep.  When the sun came out we got our first real look of the Badlands.

I went for a quick walk down to a look out and got a couple pictures of the MH and Jeep up in the parking lot.

Here is one shot from our short trip to the campground.  We will have more pictures tomorrow.

The view out our window tonight is simple.  The campground is basic and we will be here for a couple nights.

Hope you had a great day today.  We did!!  That's because I have a great travel companion.