Days 256-260 - On to the Black Hills of South Dakota

After a great farewell Sunday breakfast we departed for our two-day drive to Rapid City.  We stopped overnighted at a Walmart in Sioux City halfway through the 14 hour drive.  Our campsite for the next four days was in a secluded valley behind the Mt Rushmore monument.  A really lovely KOA park that catered to families with kids.  It was more of a resort with horseback riding, pools, golf, water slides, campfires, firetruck rides, etc.  It was barely full being the pre-season.  The only downside to it all was the lack of cell phone service and a terrible, terrible WiFi system.  Alas, it was back to the books for evening entertainment...smile.

We toured the monument.  This was our third time for each here and we both remarked that it is some much smaller than it appears in photographs.  Still grand and austere, we enjoyed the updated museum and visitor center.

We drove through Custer State Park twice.  What magnificent landscape.  While in the park we saw herds of buffalo prong horn antelope, mountain goats, lots of marmots and prairie dogs.  The drive along the needles highway was awesome in both scope and grandeur.

We took a full day to visit Wall Drug and Badlands National Park.  The landscape was familiar to that of Utah, the prairie dog towns were massive, and we saw a bighorn sheep along side of the road.  It was a hot day and a long drive in the car.  A stop at Elsworth Air Force Base got our perscriptions filled.

On our last day we enjoyed a bike ride along one of the great bike trails throughout the region.