We drove about 20 miles east on I-90 to an exit which has both the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site and another entrance to the Badlands which we've never been to. At the missile site, we watched their video and looked at the mock-ups for the displays. Their real displays won't be in place until September, but they still have a lot of information posted on the walls about the Cold War era. They had already handed out all their tickets for the ranger-guided tour. We went to the actual missile site after our last ride through the Badlands, since that is closer to Wall.
We drove into the Badlands at the east end, which is really its main entrance. First, we stopped at a viewpoint which has a nice 1/2 mile hike through the rough terrain. Fortunately, they put some yellow posts to mark the trail, since it would be very easy to get lost in there!
We started driving back on the loop road from east to west, and I saw a snake on the side of the pavement and hit the brakes! I really thought it had been hit, but I wanted a rattlesnake picture, dead or alive! As I was backing up, a car approached from the rear, but he saw it, too and stopped, and it wasn't long before we had a small traffic jam! The prairie rattlesnake was very much alive and we all took a lot of pictures as it warily made its way across the road.
We also saw two male bighorn sheep with the curved horns, which I had really been looking for. We again saw the group of females and young ones...probably the same ones we've already seen. And, we stopped at the area where we watched the owls yesterday, but didn't see any young ones. There was one adult who sat on his hole and watched.
Before we came back to the campground, we went to the exit with the one remaining Minuteman II silo. There's not much there except a hole in the ground with an inactive missile in it. All the others have been imploded. There are many other Minuteman III missile sites around which are still operational.
Boardwalk to the Badlands hike.
This is what we hiked through.
We had to work our way around these!
Tommie at the end of the trail.
He wasn't happy with his audience!
We didn't get too close!
Calmly eating grass on the edge
I think she was posing.
The rest of the group with the youngsters
They just stood there while everyone took pictures!
Another group further down the road
Watchful owl
Wonder where 238th street is?
Looking down into the silo......
really hard to get a picture because of the glare.
They put the glass cover so tourists can look down inside the silo.
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