Saturday, May 30, 2015 – Broken Arrow Horse Campground, Custer, SD

Saturday, May 30, 2015 – Broken Arrow Horse Campground, Custer, SD

 Our campground.

This morning we decided we would head to Wall, SD and the Badlands for the day.  When we left we decided it might be a good time to take the wildlife loop to the southeast of Custer.  It was a long drive and we saw practically no wildlife.  It was almost 1.5-2 hour drive, so it was a little disappointing, however the countryside was beautiful. 

 

The one thing we did see and LOTS of them were prairie dogs.  I found them quite interesting and could have watched them for quite a while, especially those with little babies running around but the guys quickly tired of them and were ready to move on.

 

After finishing the wildlife loop we headed to Wall, SD to visit the famous Wall Drug.  Everyone I’ve talked to has told me you must stop there.  It was a fun stop and we had a good time.  After walking through numerous shops in the building fronting main street, we exited into an open court area where there were several interesting things to see.  One of these included a very large jackalope that anyone could sit on to have their pictures taken.  Tucker wanted to climb up but he couldn’t reach the stirrup so Papa had to give him a hand.  Once he got up there he discovered there were stairs on the other side.  HAHA we all had a good laugh about that.  Here is a picture of him.

 

 

 

We also this covered wagon and Tucker climbed aboard to take the reins.

 

Logan and Tucker posed for this picture.

We also found a piano playing gorilla.  We dropped in a quarter to hear him but can’t remember the song he was singing and playing now.

 

On the back side of the courtyard was another large building full of other items for sale.  We enjoyed this stop.

 

Greetings from the BLACK HILLS, South Dakota!

You should visit - it is wonderful.

 

It was nearing lunchtime so we hit the local Dairy Queen for burgers and fries before heading on to the Badlands.

 

WOW!  The Badlands was one of our favorite places.  We spent the entire afternoon moving from one outlook to another looking at all of the many different rock formations in each of the various stops.  Each one was different and the colors changed from one to the next as well.  The boys had such a great time here and I have many pictures of the formations and the guys checking things out.  Twice Tucker spotted a rattlesnake.  They were both small and were at the edge of a raised boardwalk where they were getting a little sun.  The first one sounded his rattle but slithered under the boardwalk.  The second one we saw, was pretty intimidated by all of the people surrounding him and he posed to strike.  While he probably would not have reached us, none of us waited to find out and everyone scrambled backwards really quick.  Dean moved so fast he almost knocked poor Logan over.  Logan got the short end of the stick on these sightings.  On the first one he was on the opposite side of the boardwalk.  When Tucker found the first rattlesnake, Logan ran toward the boardwalk and tripped coming up on to it and fell.  Needless to say it was gone by the time he made it to the other side.

 I’ll let the pictures tell our story.

 First selfie in the Badlands!

 The boys!

 Logan and I had to have a selfie together too. 

 A mountain goat in the wild!  Woohoo!

 The two pictures above are in the area of the Badlands I enjoyed the most.  The colors are amazing.

 Here's the first rattler Tucker found.  It was pretty exciting to see this outside of a zoo environment.

 

 Love this picture.  Don't they look tough!

 

We stopped at Jimmie John’s for sandwiches before heading home.  It was pretty late and we were very tired.  But we were able to enjoy this pretty sunset on our way home. 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow is another day!