Day 5

On the road by 8.15am.  It's going to be a hot one. 20 miles down the road we cross a time line and turn the clock back an hour.  Now in Mountain Time Zone I believe. Not much traffic ... rolling plains .. some cattle.
Road signs of what is to come.  Lots of signs for a place called Wall so we have to stop.
The place to be is the Wall Drug, a fascinating, sprawling wild west shopping and entertainment centre.
Wall has done a thriving tourist trade since the mid 1930's when a local pharmacist Ted Hustead put up signs along the highway offering free ice water. Today Wall Drug attracts up to 20,000 people on a hot summer day.

We had a donut each!!


Wall is so named because it was built on the edge of the northern extension of the "Badlands wall". The Badlands National Park covers 244,300 acres of the White River Badlands in southwest South Dakota, a study in the effects of erosion, where the geology and life of the past connects with the present.
The steeply eroded land supports very little plant life.  No deep rooted trees or shrubs could take hold to preserve the land from the elements. The water and wind chafed away at the layers of deposits until the landscape took on the appearance of great castles and a great wall. French trappers who explored the west in the early 1800's called the area a 'bad land to cross'.
We have been to the Badlands on a previous trip and it is quite beautiful with vibrant colours and extraordinary sandstone formations.

At 11.00am we arrived in Rapid City!!!  It's great to be back! The drive up Highway 16 to Sheridan Lake where we will stay for a couple of weeks brings back many good memories.  The Black Hills look beautiful!

It is said that the Black hills were a sacred place to the Lakota Sioux and where they would retreat to seek guidance from the Great Spirit.  In 1874 Custer's expedition discovered evidence of gold deposits in the thickly forested hills. Miners, speculators and settlers rushed into these once sacred hills to stake their claims.

Our home will be at Sheridan Lake ... and what a home it is!