This Vantastic Life: Day 47: Badlands and Mount Rushmore

Wednesday, June 26

We pretty much just drove all day (over ten hours) from Hinton, Alberta (west of Edmonton) to Lyndon, Saskatchewan (near Regina), where we stayed at a municipal park for $25 Canadian, I actually ran a mile or so, and got showers!

Thursday, June 27

Another driving day from Lumsden, Saskatchewan and crossing back into the USA and ending outside Badlands NP near Wall, SD on the most amazing boondocking site called Nomad View. Here, I flew my drone to show pictures of the area and lost remote control connection so was unable to land or find it. I am still mourning the loss of my drone. And the Phillies lost Harper and Schwarbwr to injuries, not to mention that debacle of a Presidential debate! Some good sunset views from our site though.

Friday, June 28

We got up at 5 AM for sunrise over the badlands at our Buffalo Gap National Grasslands site on Nomad View just one mile from the entrance to Badlands NP. Driving the park roads at this hour is amazing as all the wildlife are out without any crowds and with cool temperatures. The prairie wind and sounds of the birds were so soothing to my soul. We saw bison, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and bighorn sheep all very close to the road.

Then there are the views of the badlands themselves. And we did several short hikes called the Window, the notch, the Door, and Shelf Nature trails. One involved climbing this really long ladder on the side of the hill.

After a picnic lunch at the Visitor Center, we drove 1:45 west to Mount Rushmore and walked the Trail of the Presidents. So different from 1992 when we could just drive right up and there wasn’t so much fanfare and staging.