Badlands

The South Dakota Badlands are an area of great geologic interest.  A series of inland seas alternating with hot, humid jungles, combined with mountain building over eons of tectonic activity have resulted in the erosion of the prairie bluffs that we see today.

The entrance to Badlands National Park is through Buffalo Gap National Grassland.

Once in the park, a panorama of eerie beauty appears.

This area of the plains has had an extraordinary amount of rainfall this spring, and the wildflowers are going crazy.  The contrast of the green grass and yellow flowers with the multicolored cliffs is striking.

Even the prairie dogs have been loving the nice spring!

Just north of the east entrance to Badlands NP, the Dept of the Interior manages two decommissioned Minuteman Missile sites.  One of the sites, Delta-01, includes the missile silo and the launch control center.  Delta-09 is one of the remote missile silo sites that were controlled from the central location.  Delta-01 is only available for touring on a first-come first-served basis each day, and we were long past the time that the last tickets had been distributed.  However, the Delta-09 site is available for a self-guided tour and is just a bit off of the I90 interstate.

Donna at the entrance to the football field sized enclosure for Delta-09.

The blast door is about 1/2 open in this picture.  The door is designed to withstand nuclear attack, and slide open on the steel rails.  The glass and aluminum cover allows visitors to peer down into the silo.

The missile in the Delta-09 silo is a dummy shell, but was created out of actual parts taken from decommissioned missiles.

The structure in the foreground is the "soft support" structure, housing generators, hydraulics, and such necessary to launch the missile.  There certainly wasn't a huge footprint considering the destruction buried below the surface.

Those of us who lived through the Cold War, a war without a start date or an end date, and without direct military confrontations, can certainly remember the school drills and the home bomb shelters that were a part of our everyday lives.  The Minuteman I, and later the Minuteman II missiles became a vital part of the triad of air, land, and sea-based nuclear weapons.  As such, the project was never classified, since the concept of deterrence required that the ability to strike be totally understood.  From their location in the upper Midwest, the missiles could arrive at a target over the pole in 30 minutes, well before an attack could destroy the sites. There are no longer any ICBM's in South Dakota, but some 500 nuclear missiles are still deployed in the upper Great Plains as our defense systems remain on alert.

On the way back to Rapid City, we couldn't pass up a quick trip to Wall Drug, the iconic tourist trap.  Starting in the 30's with a small drug store and soda fountain, and an idea to provide passing motorists with free ice water, the family has created a thriving attraction.

Donna managed to escape this kindly old codger, but couldn't resist an ice cream cone from the fountain!  I firmly believe that the town of Wall would blow away if it weren't for Wall Drug.
On a side note, we located a motel that we stayed in exactly 40 years ago on a trip to the midwest with Donna's parents to visit Donna's brother Bill and his wife Linda.  My, my, how time flies!

Back in Rapid City, the weather had cleared and the afternoon was beautiful, so we took a walk around Canyon Lake Park, which is adjacent to the RV park we're staying in.  It's a lovely city park arranged around a small man-made lake.  The designers placed small streams, waterfalls, and ponds throughout the park, with conveniently placed benches for sitting and small docks for fishing.

So, 186 miles driving, and 4 miles walking.  We're done!