More Wyoming & South Dakota

With our visit to Yellowstone over it was back into the car for a very long drive to Devils Tower, we set off at 7.30am and after a stop for lunch somewhere en route we finally saw Devils Tower in the distance at around 4pm.
So we parked up and had a nice walk around the whole of the base of the tower which took around 50 minutes before jumping back in the car to find somewhere to stay for the night.

The nearest town was Hulett and we managed to get into a very nice motel for the night, again with single beds for Tom & Lily (thank goodness as they were getting fed up having to share while we were in Yellowstone) and a lovely view across a nice lawn down to a river, across from the river were some horses grazing. All very bucolic. After a tasty breakfast at the nearby cafe the next morning it was back in the car for the Black Hills of South Dakota and Mount Rushmore by way of a Dinosaur Museum for Tom.

The Black Hills are very pretty and a welcome change from the rolling plains we had been driving through, Mount Rushmore was interesting.

Then more driving through one of the twistiest, windiest roads I have ever driven on which was through Custer State Park and had bridges called Pigtail Bridges because they were so tight and twisty.

Our final day was to be our adventure into the Badlands and what an adventure it was (for Lily anyway).

We did a few walks out and around including one called Notch Walk which we were advised was 'strenuous' and included a ladder. Not to be daunted, we set off and came up to the ladder

The ladder is held together by metal cables so it moves when you and others are on it....this is not a good thing for Lily. Once we got her to the top we congratulated her, calmed her down and told her it was all over and not to worry about it anymore.

We made it to the end of the walk to discover that no, it wasn't a loop walk it was an out and back walk. This was not good news for Lily as she had to face the ladder again, this time to go down it...well to say she was terrified is probably an understatement, but with much screaming from Lily and coaxing and guiding from Nick she finally managed to get back down again to much applause from everyone. We always seem to manage to terrify Lily at some point on vacation, poor thing. Once we got back we noticed this sign which advises sturdy boots. I think you can

probably see that Lily is not looking best pleased with the situation. With that ordeal behind us we were able to enjoy the rest of the day and ended up visiting the town of Wall to see what all the hype about Wall Drug was about. On our drive out to the Badlands we had passed approximately 70 adverts along an 80 mile stretch of road for Wall Drug, touristy? yes, but had to be done. We had a look around the store and had ice creams and the children got to pan for gemstones while Nick was entertained by a rather strange man. He got very excited when he heard Nick speak, 'Do you know Monty Python?' says he, Yes says Nick and then the man launches into a Monty Python Silly Walk..It was truly weird. Then to top it off, he discovers that not only is Nick English and yes, we do say words like 'super' but he is also in the RAF..Oh god, thinks Nick, Oh yes, thinks the strange man who then proceeds to quiz Nick about jets. Needless to say Nick was pleased when it was time to go. A great way to end the holiday, me thinks.