After spending the night in Kadoka, South Dakota (and being sent on our way with a blessing by a bunch of nice old ladies who ran the continental breakfast at the restaurant next to our motel) we set off into the Badlands, our first national park. An absolutely stunning/eerie environment, one of the main things we noticed about this area was the absolute DEADDDD silence--no wind, no animals, no parties.
Walking out into the Badlands, we couldn't get over how extra terrestrial they were.
Coming out of the Badlands, we saw some of our first up-close wildlife of the trip--a group of prarie dogs had made a town by the side of the road. These things are super curious, jump around, and chirp constantly. We're become big fans of prarie dogs.
At the apparently famous Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota. These natives looked exactly like us... GET IT!!!!!????
The landscape changed DRAMATICALLY as we entered the Black Hills of SD. This mountain goat was just hanging around.
G-Wash and Lincoln peeking.
We can't believe how close we got to these buffalo. Here you can see Max petting one.
A deer keeping an eye on us as we searched for a campsite in the Black Hills.
Our tent lit up by campfirelight (now a word). Not to be cliche, but I had forgotten how epic a full sky of stars was. The milky way is milky! Fancy that!
A pronghorn in Custer State Park, just outside the Black Hills.
Buffs.
The second cave of our trip, in Wind Cave National Park, also in South Dakota! Monstrous. Apparently over 2000 miles of tunnels in the network. Shortly after this was taken we were chased out by the Cave Monster.
Although we had prepared ourselves to be bored by Wyoming, the desolate rolling brown hills are actually quite beautiful in their own way. We finally felt like we were in the wessssst. We took this small local road to bypass some road work on the interstate. We wondered why no one else was taking the road, and why our GPS was telling us 40 miles would take 4 hours.....
This eerie sense of mystery was only heightened by Satan himself posessing our car as we drove down this deserted road.
Narrowly escaping the clutches of the evil one, we ended up safely in Denver, where we stayed with Barbara (my second cousin) and Jim in their suburban home. This stop was a well needed oasis of hospitality--nice to see a familiar face and be with family after being adrift in the country and nice to be fed/given a comfortable bed/fed/fed.
Heading into Rocky Mountain National Park we came across this fella. Spectacular. Huge. Glad he didn't kill us.
Tapping the rockies at Bear Lake
The chipmunks in the park must be fed by any and everyone because they have no hint of fear around humans. Later in the day, a baby chipmunk ran across my lap as I was sitting at the side of the road.
Looking down from 12,000 feet.
The landscape gets completely barren as we got above 12,000 feet. Breathing is tricky, but the views are unreal.
We checked the river behind this hill, and it does indeed run in two directions, split by the divide. We're in the homestretch now! Still nothing looks like Sesame Street though...
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