September 14, 2017 Badlands National Park, South Dakota

The smoke was really bad when we left Custer. Two fires started up in Wind Cave National Park, that is about 30 miles from Custer. I woke up short of breath and we had to shut the windows and use the AC. So off to Badlands National Park. It was very smokey and hazy the whole way. And in the high 80's.

We drove by most of the sights in the Rapid City Area.Crazy Horse monument-we visited this last time we were here, Bear Country USA- a wildlife park, the Maze, Dinosaur museum, Reptile Gardens, Air and Space Museum, and the Dances with Wolves set. Rapid City was obscured by smoke when we drove by.

Past Rapid City we drove by miles of commercial fields full of sunflowers, Buffalo Gap grasslands surround Badlands. We arrived at Interior, the small gateway city to the national park. There is this church, a sign explaining town, the Wagon Wheel bar and restaurant. We went into the Wagon Wheel to check out the menu- burgers, pizza, fries,etc. We talked with the bartender Daniel. This is his second summer working here. He is an electrical engineer from Columbia. He comes here to improve his english. The city park had this great swing on a long horn steer head. The photo of Interior is all there is. 

 We arrived at Badlands early to try to snag a campsite with power hookups- so we could use the AC and I would not have to try to breath smoke. All the sites with electric were full. So we backtracked 2 miles back to Interior and are now staying at the Badlands Interior Campground at the Budget Host Inn.  All the business in Interior have signs out front with their names made by budweiser. The plus side is this campground has a nice pool. Here we are parked in the campground. We have a site with a tree- about 3 feet tall elm, you can see it just past the picnic table.

Fall flowers and a couple cool rocks.

The peaks are very steep and sharp, thin fins and pointy spires. It's all eroding, so every rock  gets eroded around and made into wacky shapes. 

More pointy spires and thin fins.  The grass was golden for fall.

There was so much smoke the landscape looked soft and hazy. The smoke made the sunset brilliant.