Badlands Day Three

We had planned to get up early and hike a bit before it got too hot, and then cook breakfast, but by the time we all got up around 8am it was already pretty hot. Not everybody wanted to go hiking anymore, so only Pops, Dad, Mom, and Lily ended up going to hike the Cliff Shelf Trail.

The low point in the wall here is the 'notch' we were in last night on the Notch Trail! You could see some other folks standing up there this morning.

The trail passed through cedar groves. It smelled wonderful and there was some shade.

Spotted a mule deer!

After we got back, we cooked pancakes and venison sausages at the campsite. It was getting hotter and hotter and hotter. We debated just laying around all day and not going anywhere. Finally ended up deciding to go check out the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, as it's entirely indoors and air conditioned with no hiking involved. Everyone went except Mary, who opted for relaxing alone in the air conditioned hotel room for the afternoon.

On the way to the historic site, we pulled over at the Big Badlands Overlook and snapped some photos.

I didn't take too many photos at Minuteman Missile, but the kids were doing activities in the Junior Ranger guidebooks and earned patches, and the exhibits were pretty interesting. Here's one of Lily operating the missile control panel.

We headed back and it was super super hot and Joey and Lily and Katy were all super super eager to jump into the campground pool again. There was a bunch of other kids in the pool and they all played together for several hours. They invented a new version of Marco Polo where instead you yell "Honda...Civic!"

Then we cooked dinner at the campsite. I keep forgetting to take pictures of our camping meals but I remembered this one...it's a recipe called "Egg Roll in a Bowl", plus some venison sausage from Pops.

For our last evening in the Badlands, we planned to drive along Loop Road and stop at all the scenic overlooks. We hoped that by heading out near sunset, we'd be more likely to spot some wildlife.

The scenery is amazing at every scenic overlook. Here's one where the kids were each out on their own rocky outcropping. Can you spot all four of them?

It was at this point we realized we didn't yet have a photo of all six of us. Ta-da!

There were so many photos I can't post them all. Photos don't really do it justice anyway. But if you like climbing around on stuff, definitely go to the Badlands. Here's another random one of Joey off on a cliff.

At one of the overlooks we saw a group of people dressed in cosplay taking photos. Several of them were dressed up as Zelda characters. The kids thought it was so cool and they even let us take a photo.

At one of the overlooks we saw a couple of rabbits. They didn't seem very afraid of humans. The kids LOVED the rabbits and spent a ton of time taking photos and trying to coax the rabbits to come closer. I'm just now realizing that I should ask Joey and Mary to share the photos from their phones with me. I bet they have a ton of good ones I could add to these blog posts. 

You can see Lily in the foreground with one of the rabbits, and the other three are further back looking at the second rabbit.

Getting up close with a rabbit. You can see our camper van parked in the background too.

Here's some photos Joey took of the rabbit:

Here's some photos Mary took of the rabbits:

We saw lots of prairie dogs while driving on the loop road. I didn't get any good photos but in this one you can see one of them. Every sandy patch is a prairie dog tunnel entrance. You could hear them squeaking!

We also saw some mule deer and pronghorn antelope. I got a photo of some mule deer, but I didn't get any photos of the antelope, sorry.

The sun was starting to set, and I really wanted to hike the Fossil Exhibit Trail before we left the Badlands, so we ended up rushing and not driving the entire Loop Road. Here's a few photos from various scenic overlooks along the way.

Sun is sinking!

I really wanted to see buffalo. Thought this was maybe them, but turned out to be cows.

The Fossil Exhibit Trail is only a 0.25 mile loop, mostly boardwalk. It takes you past several replicas of fossils discovered in the Badlands. The sunset was amazing.

When we got back to the campground we hurried to set up the rooftop tent. Luckily it goes up really quickly. Joe and I were tired and ready to go to bed immediately, but we hadn't yet had a campfire and s'mores, and that was definitely on the kids' bucket list for things to do while camping this summer. So of course we did that.

Just asked Mary to send me any good photos she took from the day and here's her selection: