Day 25: The Badlands

Colin:
We left Wall just after 8. A short delay in town for a bit of maintenance and we headed for the Badlands.
At first, we benefitted from brand new pavement, though a mile or two later the bill came due and we instead got road prepared for new asphalt to be poured with grooves cut all through it.
Soon enough we arrived at the rim of the Badlands. From the northern edge, the land drops away sharply through jagged and columns and ridges of yellow and red banded stone. At the bottom the prarie continues seemingly oblivious to the disruption of the terrain.
Each walkway has warnings about rattlesnakes, and we heard at least one as a group of European tourists crowded around to get a close-up shot of the snake even as it made its displeasure known. Carol and I thought better of it and stayed well away.
For a few hours we wound our way through the park learning about how the land which had been seabed had turned first into jungle and then to praries eventually producing the unique landscape seen today.
We ate a quick lunch of salami and cheese burritos at a shaded picnic bench before finishing the loop through the park and returning to the main road.
A cross/headwind and the heat, combined with the effort of playing tourist in the park led us to decide on a shorter and more relaxing end to the day in Kadoka rather than pushing ourselves to reach a campgeound 20 miles further down the road.

59 miles.
1473 miles total.