Day 3

(Click on images to enlarge)

We got another early start today. We left Chamberlain, SD about 7:30 and headed west on I-90.
We crossed the Missouri river and almost immediately we began to see hills and valleys rather than flat land.

On the way, Amy noticed huge yellow fields off to the north of the interstate. Upon investigation, we discovered these were sunflower fields. Thousands of acres of sunflowers in full bloom. We pulled off and got a quick picture.

Our next stop was Badlands National Park near Interior,SD. Spanish and French explorers named them the Badlands due to there haunting appearance, but the American Indians called them the White Hills as opposed to the Black Hills farther west.





Mile after mile of clay and quartz sediment dot the landscape, constantly being changed with each rainstorm. The Badlands are a pretty spooky looking place, but there is plenty of wildlife....

We topped a hill and Amy saw this individual pop her head up out of a hole by the road. There
was a whole praire dog town with dozens of citizens going about there business.

We also saw several Bighorn sheep that have recently been released in the park. They were all ewes. No big rams to be seen. We saw our first buffalo of the trip here as well.

We left the park and headed to Wall, SD and ate lunch at the famous Wall drugstore. (Think pigeon forge commercialization on a smaller scale.) After a quick stop for supplies at Target in Rapid City, we headed south to Keystone, SD and the Mt. Rushmore National Monument.

Mt. Rushmore is located in the Black Hills. They are actually mountains (4-6 thousand feet). Mt. Rushmore is absolutely stunning the first time you round the mountain and see the Presidents staring down at you. The monument itself is very nice with great facilities (gift shop, theatre, cafe...).

We drove back toward the interstate through the Black Hills National Forest, which looks a lot like the Smoky Mountains. We are spending the night in Spearfish, SD and tomorrow we are heading west into Wyoming and Montana.

-Matthew