Winding Down

We're in the middle of Kansas, having watched South Dakota and Nebraska go by in one field of corn after another. We'll be home tomorrow...ready to unpack and get used to being back home and not in one room together.

It's been a great vacation and we have a few things still planned. I have more photos to post and some reflections to add.

Thank you for following along on our trip...

Putting the Bad in Badlands

Just about the last thing we did in South Dakota was visit Badlands National Park. The geology is cool...we just love the striated bands.



They had a fossil walk and most of the fossils were from the Ogliocene Epoch. So, they were early mammals--some predecessors of common species like horses and pigs and dogs...and some weird little aunts and uncles on the family tree that died out. I realized that dinosaurs soak up all the attention (well, they were huge and fairly fascinating) and I don't know much about these species.
I think I'd like to change all that.

Wall Drug

Paul and I have a scale for touristy things. It's the Pigeon Forge Scale. Have you ever been to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee? It's the 10 out of 10...the ultimate in kitschy schlocky wall-to-wall tourist crap. There's just miles and miles of "must-see" hokey for-profit "museums" and hillbilly-themed stores and putt-putt and laser tag. And if you're trying to go to the Great Smoky Mountains, you used to have to drive through it and it would take forever! (Luckily they built a bypass).
Anyway, in general, we always rate things on the Pigeon Forge Scale and try to stay at a 3 or lower. There are times when you have to get a little bit above that, and we did do that in a couple of places. Keyhole, SD, which is the closest town to Mt. Rushmore is probably a 5 or 6 (but it's small, so it doesn't approach the existential 10).

Wall Drug and Wall, SD are an 8, although they're significantly smaller and you can get out of the danger zone relatively quickly. I went as a kid, and it was definitely much less crowded this trip than it was then. Getting a parking place right in front was easy-peasy...and there was no line in the cafe. The food was fairly bland and forgettable. But a little bit of kitsch is alright...and fun....you just can't OD on it.

Famous Faces

Well, maybe not these faces...how about these instead?

There's not much else that needs to be said. It's cool. Everyone should go at least once.

South Dakota's version of the Needles

Another long and twisting road...but super fun, especially if you're a boy who wants to climb. This is the Needles Highway in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Mom had to look away sometimes when they were rock scrambling.

Devil's Tower

We took another detour to go to Devil's Tower in Northeast Wyoming. It's pretty iconic, thanks to Close Encounters of the 3rd kind. Everyone really enjoyed getting the opportunity to see the formation.

Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracks

Yesterday, on our way across Wyoming, we took the opportunity to stop at the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite. I don't know why this isn't in more guide books, I only found out about it by accident. Anyway, it's a collection of more than 1,100 dinosaur tracks.

They are preserved in rock, and at first you can't see them at all! But then, you figure out what you're looking at and for, and you see them everywhere.

The footsteps are in patterns. This one section of rock is so plentiful with tracks that they call it the ballroom, because it looks like the dinosaurs were dancing across the mud when the tracks were formed. In the photos of the kids above, they are moving from track to track.

Also at the site, you can fossil hunt. Any vertebrates have to be left behind, but you can pick up invertebrates (as long as you don't sell them). Graham and I found a number of fossilized clams and oysters and collected a small baggie of specimens to bring home.