Badlands

The Badlands are in South Dakota, an hour or so east of Mt Rushmore and some of the other sites.

There seem to be two parts to this park.  The eastern region is dry, hot, rugged and fairly inhospitable.

The Western area is grassy and full of animals.  Hundreds of prairie dogs live here and they are hilarious.  They are tiny animals that burrow into the ground, however they seem to spend most of the day above ground in a social atmosphere.  They seem to have a warning system when people come to gawk...they sort of stand up, throw their front legs wide and scream.  It is really quick, never caught one in a photo, but funny to watch.

 One afternoon we were joined for happy hour by a number of bison.  While we were sitting outside with a beer, they slowly encircled us and the RV, while munching the grass.  Of course they wandered away when we got up to get a camera.  Earlier, Phil and Chris went for a little hike nearby and learned an important lesson on not startling the bison.

On the way to the drier, eastern area we spotted this sheep chilling on a ledge. 

Near the Badlands National Park are some of the old Minutemen missile silos.  Most of the silos in this area have been decommissioned and there is one launch facility and one silo open to tourists.

They built the launch facility to look like a ranch house.  Sort of.

 Burried underneath the living areas in the house is a thick walled pod where the officers were stationed for 12 hour shifts in case the need arose to launch a nuclear missile.  The pods were constructed to withstand a near miss by a nuclear strike, and there is an escape hatch.  If there was a nuclear strike, why would you even bother trying to escape??

A little Minutemen humour.

The next stop was at a missile silo.  There is a missile down in there.

 The lid on the silo is pretty thick. 

After our visits to all these sites we started our long drive east across the rest of South Dakota.  Trust us, that state goes on for a long time.