Badlands National Park

Even though we were on somewhat of a schedule traveling from Washington to Michigan, we did allow ourselves enough time for a couple of unplanned side trips along the way. One that came up while we were in South Dakota was a brief stop at the Badlands National Park. I've never seen anything like this, and my first impression was this seemed like a landscape that belonged on another planet, or perhaps the setting for a movie like "The Lord of The Rings". Since that movie has already been made, maybe for an adaptation of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. It is stark, desolate, eerie, and other-worldly.

The park consists of nearly 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires, and is really impossible to describe. The history of the Badlands stretches back to the beginning of time, and the land is rich with fossil beds dating 23 to 35 million years old. The evolution of mammal species such as the horse, sheep, rhinoceros and pig can be studied in the Badlands formations. An array of extinct animals, ranging from very enormous to very small, once ranged through the area now included in Badlands National Park. Some lived in the subtropical forests that flourished after the retreat of the shallow inland seas, while others inhabited the savannahs and grasslands that came in the years afterward.

Hopefully you can get at least a glimpse into this place like no other with the attached pictures. Remember - click on them to enlarge for the full effect.

Pierre, South Dakota

After leaving Rapid City, we continued our Eastward trek, with a two day stop near Pierre, South Dakota to visit the state capitol. Much to our surprise and delight, we were literally the only visitors there on the day we took our tour. It happened to be Sunday, and Mother's Day, and not very pleasant weather, so perhaps all those things combined made this an unlikely day for crowds. Since we were the only ones there, we were given a lengthy and private tour of the building by the docent on duty that day.

The first thing we noticed inside the building was the similarities to the construction and architecture to the capitol building in Helena, Montana. The architect did indeed pattern his design after the state capitol in Helena, with one major difference. The floor of the capitol building in Pierre is made of terrazzo tile. The floor is said to have been laid by 66 Italian artists. To give these artists a chance to place their signatures in the building (without allowing them to actually sign their names to the floor), each is said to have been given a blue stone to place in the floor. Only 55 of these tiles have been found, however. It is thought that the remaining stones may have been placed in locations now covered by walls, doors, or carpeting.

Here are some pictures of the outside, interior, and tile floor of the capitol building in Pierre.