Badlands National Park was our final National Park in the United States Lower 48 to visit since retirement at the end of 2017. We were pretty excited about this achievement and are plotting our travels to the National Parks that are not in the lower 48…

Again, we were camping with our friends, Rick & Cindy and their dog Watson as well as our friend Renee, who stayed in a nearby motel. We were able to actually camp in a Badlands NP campground, which is usually very challenging for us between the NP campground’s incredible popularity as well as our size. Camp sites that accomodate our size of rig are quite limited and that’s why we end up in RV Campgrounds outside of the National Parks.

We also visited the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site as well as took the requisit trip to Wall Drug in Wall, SD. On our way home we did a quick stop at the Wounded Knee Memorial south of the Badlands NP on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as well as drove through Scotts Bluff National Monument on the western edge of Nebraska sitting above the North Platte River.

Ben Reifel Visitor Center Area & Cedar Pass Campground

Badlands Loop Road

Nearby the Badlands NP: Minuteman Missile National Historical Site & Wall Drug

The Minuteman Missile National Historical Site is two-fold in that it is an actual Minuteman Missile site and the National Park built a museum explaining the roles of the Minuteman Missile sites, which are numerous in South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana. I recall the controversy of them being built in Montana in the 70’s.

We did not get to go down into the missile site due to the lack of staffing to conduct the tours. But we did get to watch a virtual tour with a former Air Force officer who was stationed in one of these sites. It was quite interesting. Both Tom and I have worked with people who were stationed at the bases associated with the missile sites and manned the sites.

A quick wander through Wall Drug satisfied our curiousity!

The Trip Home: Wound Knee Memorial & Scotts Bluff National Monument (May 31)

We drove through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, just south of Badlands NP and stopped at the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Site.

Then we worked our way west into Nebraska and drove through the Scotts Bluff area. Scotts Bluff is a noted geological formation as you can see from the photo and sits above the North Platte River. This area is full of geological, palentological, native american and western settlers histories. The Oregon, California and Mormon Trails all go through Scotts Bluff, Nebraska as did the Pony Express and many others who traveled west in the 1800’s.