The Dead Presidents Tour 2013: Badlands and Dead Presidents

We woke up to rain Saturday morning. We loaded up and hit the "I-90" as Bertha calls it and it was a miserable drive for the first couple of hours. We felt bad for the bikers heading home from Sturgis as it had to be a horrible drive for them in that driving rain. When it finally stopped it was wild how you could see for miles. We decided we were going to take the Loop Road through Badlands National Park and then go on to Wall Drugs. We got off and stopped at the Minutemen Missile Silos and then made a stop at the Prairie Dog Ranch. Debbie and Kay were loving the little dogs that I fondly remember from my days living in El Paso as rats with personalities. After leaving there we headed into the Badlands National Park. It was absolutely beautiful and what a stark difference in terrain from one mile to the next. We were all in awe of this beautiful scenery and we did go off the paths and climb up one that looked into a valley below. I was a bit hesitant when before getting on the trail it warned we should watch out for rattlesnakes!

Although you can't see it, it is really raining hard here.

Prairie Dogs were everywhere.

Badlands National Park

Yikes!

We took our time and tons of photos and then headed on to Wall Drugs in the town of Wall, SD. It is worth a stop to see this cute little town.

Debbie and Annie Oakley

By this time Debbie wanted to go to Bear Country which is one of those wildlife places you drive through and it's on the way to Mt. Rushmore. They tell you to keep the windows up at all times and Debbie being Debbie wants to put them down to get better pictures. I refused so my photos aren't quite as good as they could have been and of course the male buffalo was on my side of the car less than six inches from my door and he was quite the scary sight! Debbie and Kay got quite a laugh out of my state of .fright!

Shortly after leaving there Debbie saw Old McDonald's Farm on the side of the road and of course we had to make a stop. By this time it is too late to drive all the way back to Rapid City to our hotel and come back for the night lighting of Mt. Rushmore so we decide to go directly there. It is quite a moving sight to see it and the ceremony they perform before the night lighting is very nice with the patriotic music. It was a great day but long and we are all so tired and had 30 miles to drive to the hotel now. We got there about 10:45 and immediately crashed! We are now in Mountain Time Zone.