We woke early, about O'Dark Thirty to get out of Mitchel and to Badlands National Park by lunch time or just after. After a few stops we decided we were hungry and hit a rest area. We were welcomed by thousands of grasshoppers. When you walked they jumped and sometimes they hit you and it stung!
Another stop was to the Badlands Petrified Forrest Museum. It's a little shack on the side of the road that has been in business since 1956. I remember visiting this place when I was 12 and our family made this very similar trek across county. Since I'm not ashamed of my age, that was just shy of 25 years ago! It was exactly as I remembered! The girls liked it, but it was hot, so we didn't stay long. Tony hung out in the truck with the dogs since they were not allowed.
We arrived In the Badlands right on time to 103 degrees and rising and some pretty decent wind gust. Turns out the high today in the Badlands was 110 degrees. When we left the park our temp gauge read 108 degrees! Good times. We first visited the spot of my trip I mentioned above. It is a fancy tickler that is for sure! One wrong move and you can say adios!It was too hot on the puppies feet so I sat in the truck since I have been there before. Layla didn't take well to the heat, poor thing. We moved on to some other trails and then Maya and Tony did a nature trail to see if they could find any birds. Layla and I hung back in the truck with the pups. I did get out and video some of the scenery. Just breathtaking! As we entered the park we noticed what looked to be a small fire in the distance. As we left we noticed how big it had become. 5 tanker trucks past us in the park. As we left the park it was huge. I think we witnessed our first grass/wildfire.Upon recent a recent internet search, I found that it is a grassland fire and as of 3pm this evening 1,500 acres had burned and was threatening structures. No word on how it started.
After the Badlands the end of the road was Wall, SD and the famous Wall Drug. By this time Layla and Maya were both feeling the effects of the heat and probably some elevation. And then we couldn't take or leave the dogs so we decided that this is one tourist stop we would have to pass on and moved on. After a quick stop at a gas station and a quick bite from McD's, everyone was feeling much better.
Our final route took us through Mt. Rushmore and by the Crazy Horse monument, but we were more interested in the huge plum of smoke billowing in front of us. Mt. Rushmore was breathtaking and we will be going back to get a closer look, but the drive was beautiful. This smoke seemed to be in the direction of our campground and had us somewhat concerned. As we got closer we realized it was not near our campground. I was able to do a quick search and found out that a lightning strike occurred last night (7/18) and 57 acres and some of Custer State Park had burned because of it and as of last night 70% of the fire was contained. Upon further internet searching I have found that the fire in CSP is fully contained and is in the "mop up" stage.
We are now in our "home" for the next 5 nights and 6 days and it is good to be in one spot for more than one night. I was able to officially unpack. Our first night we didn't even unhook from the truck! We are finding that the camper is holding so much heat on our travels that we blow through ice like crazy and the locals know it. Charging $2 for a very small bag of ice that will last maybe a few hours is highway robbery, but, that is what we have to do! Our campground is very pretty and pretty quiet compared to the others. There is a huge pool with a few big water slides I'm sure we will venture too this week. The temps are suppose to back down with a chance of rain most days, but only a chance. Just as long as the lightning strikes hold off we should be good. This part of SD is also in severe drought conditions. No campfires allowed. We are not big into those anyway, but the girls are begging for S'mores. I have perfected doing them over the gas stove in the camper so I may have to do that one day this week. Another thing this campground has is bunnies. There are signs everywhere saying do not pick up the bunnies and they even have a playground just for the bunnies. We think they are cute, but the dogs won't. They will take one look and think LUNCH!
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