After our visit to Wall Drug, we continued to Badlands National Park. On the way, we stopped at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, which explains how the Minuteman Missiles were positioned in the Great Plains as a deterrent during the Cold War era. While there are no longer active ICBM silos in South Dakota, there are still hundreds in other areas of the Great Plains. We were able to watch an explanatory video, but there were no tours available, due to elevator problems, we were told. That was disappointing, as I know Damien would have found it interesting.
A short distance further, we entered Badlands National Park. These eerie and rugged geological formations must truly have been "bad land" to early travelers, Lakota and French trappers alike, as both called the place "bad lands." While these formations are not confined to the Park, they do seem to be concentrated here.
Like an oasis in this harsh landscape, this "shelf" concentrated what water and vegetation there was, and this was used by early inhabitants of the area.
Finally, at the visitor center, we enjoyed a series of wonderful exhibits about prehistoric and present day life in the Badlands area, and the surrounding grasslands. I came away with new insights about the ecology of the Badlands area.
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