Badlands National Park, South Dakota

After driving through seemingly endless fields of corn, then dozens of fields of wheat and sunflowers, we made it to Badlands National Park! And let me tell you, our second major national park did not disappoint. It's not the biggest or most exploration friendly park, so we were able to do the whole thing in about three hours. With the exception of seeing bison and doing a 10 mile hike, we saw and did everything. Though not seeing bison definitely wasn't for lack of trying! We got to see a couple of small herds of bighorn sheep, giant prairie dog towns and all of the giant, beautiful rock formations. On the way out, we stopped at Wall Drug (of course) and got our free water, 5¢ coffee, and homemade donuts! For those of you who haven't heard of Wall Drug, in the 1930's it was a failing drug store in the Godforsaken town of Wall, SD outside of the Badlands NP. They realized that the way to draw people to their store was to offer the hot, thirsty people driving through the badlands some free, ice cold water, and man did it work! It's a GIANT tourist trap now, so we were happy to be trapped for a little bit!Read more