As we left Minnesota we stopped off while crossing the Mississippi River. It was starting to seem like we were really moving west crossing the Mississippi. North Dakota was one big rainstorm, so we kept driving to South Dakota to get through it. Holy Pheasants! It seemed like we were seeing dozens per mile as we crossed the plains. Our next big destination was the Badlands National Park.
After hundreds of miles of flat, the Badlands offered some welcome and intriguing relief.
We also ran into a bit of wildlife.
Bison and bighorn sheep seemed kind of ho hum compared to the prairie dog colonies though. I suppose it was the charm of watching them for the first time.
As we looped out of the park we found ourselves in Wall, home of Wall Drug, so we made a stop. Wall Drug is a place you hear about so much you feel like you should stop, but after about 5 minutes of walking around we decided we didn’t need a rubber tomahawk or a bumper sticker so we moved along. Now we can say “been there, done that” and we don’t have to stop again.
We moved a bit more west the following day to see another one of those places you feel like you need to see if you are in the neighborhood.
After paying our parking fee (no America the Beautiful here!) we were ushered into the RV parking and we roamed around to see the different angles of George, Tom, Teddy and Abe.
Moving west from Mt. Rushmore we crossed into Wyoming, to another landmark.
Devils Tower is quite a sight, rising up above the forest of northeast Wyoming, and offered a chance to stretch our legs while we hiked around the tower.
There was another city of prairie dogs to provide some entertainment as well.
Our adventure moving west was drawing to a close. It was time to go find a home base. We made a stop in the Wind River Mountains that served as somewhat of an end to our trip, although we still didn’t know exactly where we were heading or where we would land. As we pulled into camp there was a cow moose with a calf, we finally saw a moose, now that we were back west. After all the hundreds of signs warning of moose in the northeast we never ran across one, or talked to anyone that did. The first mountain range we reached in the west, voila, there was the elusive moose. It’s good to be back in the west.
