2800+ Mile Road Trip: Day 7

Well we left Chamberlain, SD and headed west towards Rapid City, SD this morning. For the first 2 hours of our trip we enjoyed our choice of 3 radio stations and views of either beef cattle farms, sunflower fields, or rolled hay fields. Again, the ever so repetitive billboards kept us posted on the upcoming attractions for the day.... The Badlands, Wall Drug, and Mt. Rushmore.  I was so amazed how you can see for miles and you literally see nothing. No houses... no power lines.... just grasslands.

First stop of the day was The Badlands.  The detour drive through the eroded land was worth the extra 45 minutes added onto our trip. It was very windy since the Badlands are surrounded by the prairie but had incredible views. We also saw a ton of prairie dogs and a couple of big horn sheep.

My good little rider! 

Next we headed on to Wall Drug in Wall, SD. It is a tourist trap but I did enjoy checking out old prescription pads, drug references, bottles, etc from the 1930s in their Apothecary Museum. 

Wall Drug Store is known for their free ice water, homemade donuts, and 5 cent coffee as tactics by Dr. Hustead, RPh to increase business in the 1930s.... so we tried all three. 

Next we headed toward the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore. But before we reached Mt. Rushmore we stumbled upon what we thought was going to be another tourist trap but turned out to be amazing. It was a wildlife park called Bear Country USA. They allowed you to drive through a gated park that housed bears, wolves, reindeer, moose, buffalo, etc but there was nothing separating the animals and your car. We could have reached out and petted a black bear, wolf, or buffalo if we wanted..... 

Lastly we headed to Mt Rushmore before calling it a day. The wind was blowing and it was pretty chilly but we enjoyed seeing the art work by Gutzon Borglum.  Leighton needed her winter hat to protect her ears from the cold: ) 

 We ended our day by eating dinner with our friend's parents, Jim and Julie (June V's grandparents) in Rapid City, SD. They graciously hosted us for the night, fed us well, and gave us a place to sleep. In return, we gave them a grandbaby to play with. They were so kind.