Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The end of the trip -- Badlands and beyond


We got to the Badlands and the campground minutes before some ferocious thunderstorm. It was fun to watch the lightening all around when you are in this very desolate looking place. We chose to spend this night in the van rather than set up anything as we figured we would get an early start on driving the next morning, seeing the park first thing and then heading back east.

The Badlands are not a large geographical area but are interesting as there is yet another version of spires and canyons than that which we have seen in other places. There is a lot of color and from the readings along the way, this is a sight of a lot of paleontological findings.




The Badlands were extremely colorful as well with the spires showing all different colors. It was strangely beautiful. My favorite part was the large "town" of prairie dogs though in one part of the park.

From the Badlands, we headed through the rest of South Dakota and into Iowa, then south through Missouri, Kentuck, Tennessee and onward to North Carolina. We headed through the Smokies there but we had already been to the National Park on another trip. We spent our second night on the trek back east in Tennessee and a real 70's motel where there were nothing but white panel trucks like ours -- very weird!!

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