Post 3 of ?. We entered Badlands National Park from the west entrance near Walls and drove the loop road east to the main Visitor Center. It was a beautiful drive with lots of stops at overlooks for photos. Becky is so patient… The morning drive was not busy with plenty of room at the overlook pullouts but by the time we got to the Visitors Center it was packed with people. We drove the loop road again and enjoyed seeing the landscape from the other direction. Badlands National Park is a landscape that must be experienced. I’ll just post a bunch of pics. Here’s a couple quotes from others;

“fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to hardly properly belong to the earth” Theodore Roosevelt.

“indescribable sense of mysterious elsewhere” and “endless supernatural world more spiritual than earth but created out of it” Frank Lloyd Wright.

Desert Cactus was blooming everywhere on the drive, especially on the edges of the canyons.

East Entrance Sign (near Wall).

Deer literally ‘bounced’ across the grass

Our little Chevy Trailblazer tow car was really nice to drive through the park.

Lots of people tried to Homestead in the Badlands area. Very few made it.

The main Visitors Center sign. Visit early in the morning before it’s packed with people…

An old historical marker sign in Town of Wall.

We had to visit the Worlds Largest Jackalope. There is a balcony between it’s front paws.

We walked up to stand on the “Jackalope Balcony” to fully experience this “largest” roadside attraction kitsch.

We also visited the National Grasslands Visitors Center in Wall. There is only one Visitors Center for over a million acres of National Grasslands and it’s right here in Wall. They had this colorful map showing Wall in relation to many of the Black Hills places we are visiting next