Badlands and Staying in South Dakota

In keeping tradition with prior road trips, I [Keith] woke up at 6am to try and take a picture of the sunrise. Given the low number of visitors to Badlands, it was especially calm and serene (and cool!) in the early morning. While I had a chance to sit alone and watch the sunrise for an hour, the sun never really broke from the haze (I was hoping it would bathe the entire valley in shadows and bright orange light). Later on I found out from the park rangers that the haze is likely due to a big forest fire over at Yellowstone (uh oh).

Karen joined for an early morning, before-breakfast hike. We went to the "Doors Trail" which provides an expansive view of one section of the wall. The trails are extremely flat, easy, and fast; sections of the boardwalk also allows you to walk out and wander among the buttes.

By 8:30am, we had checked out of our little cabin at Cedar Pass Lodge. This little lodge is located next door to the park's main visitor center, and is at the bottom of "the wall". Rabbits and various wildlife wander just in front of our doorsteps; it even had its own private bath and shower! A short film at the Visitor's Center explained how Badlands was formed as sedimentary layers over hundreds of millions of years, resulting in the multicolor striations. The entire area was part of an inland sea, and has been extensively studied since many of the Oligocene Epoch era sea-based dinosaur-like creatures have been fossilized and found through the different rock layers. Many active archaeological digs around the South Dakota area are still in progress today.

The entire area is practically inside a Sioux Indian reservation. The Lodge has a small restaurant where I ordered an "Indian Breakfast Taco": It has a cheddar and sausage omelet topped over fried Indian bread. Unlike the sod oven fried bread we had in Taos (New Mexico), this one was like one gigantic fried dough; the size can only be explained by the picture.

Naturally I ate it all. Nothing like a massive dump of calories for those flat hikes today!

We also attended a 10:30am fossil talk at one of the trails where many fossils were found. A huge mother-of-pearl from an old ammonite was found, and so was the "up-to-3-feet-long" jaw of some nasty sea-beast that crunched on these ammonites. The jaw of one of these prehistoric creatures was pressed into my neck for a sense of... scale.
We also drove to "The Pig Dig", an area adjacent to one of the picnic sites where 14 years ago some visitors discovered a huge dinosaur spine in the ground. Since then, scientists have found many many (hundreds?!) of fossils buried in the surrounding 500 square feet! Here they are in the process of pulling a newly-found skull out of the ground (lower right in the picture).

Ever since entering South Dakota two days ago (350 miles ago), we started seeing billboard signs for "Come to Wall Drug, as featured on Times/Newsweek/USA Today/Travel and Leisure/etc." Hundreds of signs later, we finally came to this store that practically defines the town (situated above the Badlands "wall").

Its story is actually quite impressive. A couple moved to Wall in search of a smaller town with a church, and labored through many grueling winters with no visitors or business. Finally, they decided to post billboards throughout the state highway advertising "stop here for free ice water!" Given the parched central plains in the summer, flocks of travelers started going to Wall. Now, they have up to 20,000 visitors a day (including a dedicated parking lot just for RVs and tour buses!) going to their museum, souvenir shops, and massive dining rooms.

After a quick lunch at Wall Drug, we headed to Mount Rushmore. Karen and I both noted that, for some reason, both of our families have not had the urge to take us here before (Is it a requisite American thing to do??). Oh well, now we have done the pilgrimage, and learned about how the 4 presidents were selected, how the entire project was done over decades, and what it symbolizes. I was especially intrigued by how, behind the presidential faces, was a separate tomb called the "Hall of Records" that is unaccessible to the public! So much for our tax money... apparently various histories of the United States are stored as etched tablets there. There is also an explanation for who the presidents are, and why Mt Rushmore was sculpted, "in case our civilization ceases to exist and is later found by others." How morbid.

Arriving at Rapid City, South Dakota, we actually were very much looking forward to having dinner at a new French bistro called The Corn Exchange! MJ, the owner and head chef, was trained as an artisan in the food centers of the world, and decided to open up a haut cuisine place in South Dakota. After years of labor and unfortunate events, she finally brought gastronomy to this small city. Her love of food and travels is well documented on her website, and we made it a point to reserve a spot for dining months in advance!

We started with a pear-cucumber soup, and roasted beets with goat cheese and a glass of Gewürztraminer. Karen had a roast quail, while I had the best filet mignon in my life. It was locally-sourced by a small organic farm, and done just right. MJ herself stopped by and we chatted about various restaurants -- she is so nice, and let us take a picture with her.

By the time we returned to our hotel (Fairfield / Marriott Inn), we noted that over half of our vacation is over. The car has reached 40,000 miles on the odometer, and 2,281 miles was clocked so far on this trip alone (averaging ~29 miles per gallon). Tomorrow we head to Cody, Wyoming!