Day 8. To the Badlands

Another sound night's sleep in the very comfortable Bassett Lodge. Although, that is the first place I have ever stayed that offered rags for "cleaning your guns"! Up and off at 7:30 our route first took us through the sandhills of Nebraska. We were both struck by the vastness of this land, all we saw for 120 miles was rolling grassland grazed by beef cattle. We saw the gates to ranches but barely saw a building. We love riding early in the morning as there is so little traffic. We had amazing weather.

We then crossed the State border into South Dakota (9 states in 8 days!) and gained an extra hour as we crossed into Mountain time.

We rode through Native American territory and past Wounded knee, the site of the terrible massacre in 1890.

A right turn onto Route 44 at the town of Scenic bought us into the Badlands - it took our breath away.

In January I booked us in to the Cedar Pass Lodge within the Badlands National Park itself. I cannot believe we are actually here. First we had to get into the park - I had also bought a National Park Pass which will get us into all the Parks we visit without paying any additional fees - this will save a ton of money on the trip.

Tom handing our pass to the Park Ranger

It was still too early to check in so we rode through the park to Wall and visited the famous Wall Drug Store which was well worth the visit. It has grown into much more than a drug store and had us trying on Cowboy Hats and eyeing the boots as well! By now the temps were in the 90's! After spending a few hours in Wall, we headed back to the Park and were soon settled into our cabin. New this season, they are lovely cabins and perfect for a comfortable evening gazing out over the landscape. Photos will follow.

Stats for the day:

Mileage: 326  Total mileage: 2326

Moving Av.: 60  Moving time: 4:30