Day 8 | Badlands National Park

This has been an amazing day.

We had built an extra day into our itinerary at the end of the first week either for relaxation or spending more time in an interesting area. We decided to spend the extra night in Badlands NP so we could take the day to explore it properly.

Rather than having breakfast in camp and given it was going to be in the high 90s today, we left camp at 7:30 with the goal to make coffee and have breakfast in the park itself… and we were rewarded for that decision.

10 minutes into the park, with its outstanding landscape, we spotted bighorn sheep along the road. Not expecting wildlife so soon, we scrambled for our cameras which are now nestled in their permanent spots for the rest of this trip. 

Coffee was a walk at a trail head. Breakfast was a spectacular overlook. 

More bighorn sheep literally along the side of the road and prairie dogs .. so cute popping up everywhere (photos will come when I can process them put of my camera).

These bison were grazing at the west end of the loop.  I spotted pronghorn antelope as we drove along highway 90 but couldn’t stop.

We spent an hour or so in Wall, SD just because it’s the ‘thing to do’ and had icecream for lunch.

We stopped at the Minutemen nuclear missile exhibits and learned more 60s history than I cared to know.

There was a family birthday today and given we have no network at our campsite, we held our daily family zoom call from a roadside stop in the park.

A swim in the pool in our campsite was welcome relief from the heat.

A beautiful evening with our little city lights campfire.