Badlands National Park Day 1

Thursday June 16
This morning we continued crossing the Plains of South Dakota, beautiful weather, wide open spaces, and not much traffic. Jen had left Salt Lake City yesterday afternoon, stopping over the night further west in South Dakota, and we were meeting up about lunch time in Wall, S. Dakota. As we were driving we realised we would be crossing another Time Zone, and so would arrive an hour earlier than we thought, which was good, since we then arrived just about ten minutes after Jen. Wall is best known for its Wall Drug store (see extra) which is advertised along the interstate, for about the last 100 miles!
Wall Drug had its humble beginnings back in 1931, when Ted and Dorothy Hustead bought a small drugstore there and tried to eke out a living. The town of Wall was referred to back then as the “geographical centre of nowhere”, and to compound matters the Great Depression was taking hold across the country. However, it ultimately became a success due to one simple idea: offering road weary travelers free ice water, and advertising along the road to let people know. Over the years it has grown substantially, and is far more than a “drug store”. It offers dining, visito information, gifts, art, souvenirs, etc!
We enjoyed some lunch there - buffalo burgers (!) - and had a brief look round, but we wanted to get into Badlands National Park and do some hiking. The Badlands name stems from what the Lakota Indian tribe called it “mako Sica”, meaning “land bad”. It comprises a wonderland of bizarre, sharply eroded, colourful buttes, pinnacles and spires, blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the U.S. Jen, as usual had been doing her homework regarding the trails, and suggested we did the 5 mile Castle trail, which is an out and back trail, so for most people would have to be a 10 mile hike. However, since there is a road at each end, and today we had two cars with us, we were able to just do it one way, which under the hot sun, and no shade was more than enough! As you can see from my collage, it was a wonderful trail, affording us widely varied views, and many cacti in bloom, and a number of birds.
After our hike we continued on to our AirBnB for the next four nights on the edge of Rapid City, almost an hours drive away. After unpacking the cars, Roger Jen and I went to do a bit of grocery shopping, and I fixed us a late dinner.