that really is big!

staying our third night together just slightly west of the north dakota border, it was an easy morning to wake up, wash the gunk out of our eyes, prep our drive schedule, and hit the road.  destination:  teddy roosevelt national park and the southern tip of the north dakota badlands.  now exactly what these badlands are about, i'm not really sure.  there still seemed to be some amazing wildlife [ and by amazing i mean huge ] with a beautiful canyon-esque setting.  a river that flows through it and some natural vegetation.  we drove a thirty six mile looping trail that winded throughout the park.  seeing wild horses, pairie dogs, and buffalo [ little education lesson:  there are no buffalo that live in the u.s., they are infact only in south america.  thus we actually saw american bison ].  also abundant were walking trails that could lead you down into the depths or up to the heights.  we decided to go to a height and from there you could see large puffy white clouds, the changing levels of the various canyons, as well as, the many colors from grey to firey maroon, brillant cream to black. 

after lunch on a picnic beach, getting eaten by bees and eating some sandwiches and veggies, we dropped our postcards off at the drop box, took a picture of a mr. potato head style face placed into a tree and headed south.  night plan, to make it to sturgis, but not without a detour to the devil's tour in northeastern wyoming.  this once under ground volcano became blocked by unexploded and dried lava.  after many years [ and i mean like 50 billion ] it became exposed and is now even starting to deteriorate away.  cracking and crumbling from it's great heights to the basin floor.  at the base is a looping trail a little over a mile long that one can walk around and see all the sides of the tower.  and if you're really crazy, you can climb it and spend the night on the top.  now, i did have my climbing shoes with, an offer from a fellow climber [ watching two-two person teams ] to climb...but i had no rope, mom hanging out, and have never before scaled anything above a 5.10 in difficulty [ climbing terms, don't worry about it.  but this was guessed to be around an 8.5 or above. ]  the top is a rounded mound with some bushes and a great view.  instead, mommy and i packed it up and drove it out of town.  hit our night goal, grabbed dinner and beer, and looked forward to tomorrow with giddy christmas eve like excitment.

alas, the day had finally come...ever since i can remember, mommy had wanted to visit the black hills, corn palace, and mt. rushmore.  today was to be 'the day'.  we got up, headed south west into keystone, south dakota and the mt. rushmore monument area.

the monument really does seem to come out of nowhere.  at first there are some turny roads, hills, valleys, climbs, and then out of nowhere, a recognizable vision.  and though to look at it from the viewing deck it many not seem that imposing, if the faces were to be full bodies, and those bodies to be alive, the person standing would reach 60 storeys...that's pretty huge.  we walked around [ as exampled in the photo ] leaning towards each other and sharing one tour wand, hearing about the creation, execution, workers accounts, and intended impact of the sculpture.  designed and started by the same man that worked on the lincoln monument in washington, d.c., there were quite a number of years of toil.  i mean, could you imagine if your grandfather had actually worked on this sucker?!  that would be amazing!

after time spent at the mountain, we head back through keystone, stopping for a gold mine tour and of course...some panning.  the deal with our big thunder gold mine tour was that it was started by two german fellows, ingle and crump, because they spoke a mutual language, but from the beginning, didn't really get along so well.  lore from across the canyon was that some bloke had found about $16 million worth of gold, so they thought for sure they would strike it rich.  alas, after 34 years together they walked away with only two hundred dollars...and split that cuz there was two of them.  no fun.  after our meek gold flake findings as well, we worked our way east through south dakota, stopping at the wall drug store in wall, sd and landing in mitchell, sd.  so-long!

notable wyoming: 

     gates and 'return in opposite direction' signs at many of the on and off ramps...due to heavy snow seasons i would mostly imagine.

    and then lets not forget all of the flippin' deer running around EVERYWHERE!  i mean they were jumping over fences like no one's business.  i bet they could probably jump a car, or even a building...well a least a human.  i'm guessing really

notable north dakota:

     guess it would really just be that the badlands are really beautiful in there own way.  and maybe called badlands in general because the style and make up of them is strikingly different from that in it's immediate area.  the hills, canyons, and colors just appear out of nowhere...and you're already pretty sure that you can see to the other side of the state from the opposite border.

notable south dakota:

   1.   there were a couple of instances in which out of state license plates were attached to road posts.  i don't know if this where a car broke down and they wanted to remember it.  if it's an out of stater's claim to the open land...or some other social or cultural phenomenon, but it sure was strange to see. 

    2.   they have a bizillion and half billboards.  three every one third mile at least...so many!

    3.   and a lot of there roads were also underconstruction.  sorry, but it's really hard to not speed through the cone zones of the middle of nowhere.

   4.   i've just gotta throw it out there...from the restaurant senior weiner, 'you know you want one!'