South Dakota Badlands

After leaving Laura Ingalls Homestead (blog post coming later as I accidentally deleted some of the photos, and need to attempt data recovery from the memory card), we headed west from De Smet, South Dakota. We enjoyed a glorious sunset on the road.




Wall Drug in Wall, SD, provided us a map which to follow to the Badlands Loop we had wanted to take.




We were not prepared for the magnificence of Badlands. Just amazing.




We spotted two bison on the prairie, and I also photographed people to give some frame for the hills and mountains.




After this sign we were looking where we were stepping even more carefully than before!

(Fortunately didn't see any.)




It is so hard to see the vastness in a photograph. But I tried anyway.




Proof that we were there:)

I wanted to get a shot of the kids jumping off the cliff, and even though the first one is missing Mr. D, I found it so hilarious I included it here, also:)




The boys and I agreed - we were relieved it was the Captain who was driving the Mothership! Scary roads, for sure (yet nothing like what we encountered in Utah!).




We spotted many prairie dogs out there - so cute popping out of their holes.




Loved this different landscape! The geological formations were gorgeous.




As we were driving along, we also spotted bighorn sheep at one point.




Badlands Loop gets A+ from the Mothership Crew - we really loved our half a day driving around! There were many points where you can get off your vehicle and walk around. Some hikes, too, although we just walked around a little bit, and mainly enjoyed the scenery from the Mothership.

If you go, make sure to stop at Wall Drug, too, as touristy as it looks:)
(Their coffee is 5¢ a cup, and the donuts are delish!)

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South Dakotan osavaltiossa on paljon nähtävää. Nämä kuvat ovat Badlands-alueelta. Wall'in kaupungista alkaa autotie, joka on noin 65 km Badlandsien läpi. Upean näköistä! Näimme biisoneita, preeriakoiria ja paksusarvilampaita. Onneksi ei yhtään kalkkarokäärmeitä tai muitakaan käärmeitä! Preeria, vuoret ja kukkulat olivat vaikuttavan näköisiä. Suosittelemme!

To the West/Länteen!

It is pretty challenging to keep up with blogging when you are traveling, snapping hundreds of photos, and seeing new places every day. Here's a short recap of this past week's travels, and I'm also hoping to do blog posts on the individual places we visited, later.




A week ago Sunday we left Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the Mothership. We drove to upstate New York, and on Monday we continued driving through New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, into Indiana. No fun stops yet, we had get-there-itis:)




On Tuesday we drove from Indiana through Illinois into Iowa. We stopped in West Des Moines and had our first fun stop - at a mall:) The Captain needed to bring his iPad into the Apple store, so we took advantage of that need, and shopped a bit. The teens also attended their live math class with Mr. D Math. During their geometry, the Captain, Little Miss and I had a mini date at the Cheesecake Factory.




On Wednesday we drove to South Dakota. Our first time! We spent about a half day at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead in De Smet, SD. It was quiet there this time of the year, but still worth visiting, and it felt great to be roaming about after traveling for awhile. Afterward we drove to Pierre, SD, and boondocked at Walmart.




On Thursday morning we drove to Wall, South Dakota, and after seeing gazillion roadside ads for Wall Drug, we were curious enough, and stopped there for breakfast.

We also spent a few hours at a campground, since we needed to fill our water tank, empty our full tanks, and we looked forward to taking long showers and washing laundry there, too. After a few days of traveling a housekeeping stop was sorely needed.

At breakfast, we were reading the story behind Wall Drug (read here), and also discovered Badlands Loop Road starts in Wall! We had wanted to drive the Loop Road, but in the haze of travel and poor wifi, we had set our GPS for Mount Rushmore, and were planning on checking out Badlands afterward.

In Little Miss' school work we had just read Psalm 23, about how God guides us along the right paths, and it was neat to see how God (and Wall Drug ads, haha) directed us to Wall, SD.




We swapped our order of sightseeing, and so enjoyed our drive through Badlands.




From Badlands we continued on to Rapid City, SD, and on Friday morning we drove to Mount Rushmore National Park. Another first for our family! Wow - so neat to see in person, and we enjoyed learning about the construction.




We didn't spend a long time at Mount Rushmore. Our next stop was Devil's Tower in Wyoming. We spotted it far in the distance, and the closer we got the more impressive it was. A great place to stretch our legs and go on a little hike, too!




Friday night we boondocked at Walmart, again, and early Saturday morning headed south. Our generator had been struggling for a while now, and completely quit on us Thursday night. We had also used up all our coach battery, so nothing was working inside the RV. The Mothership was driving fine, fortunately, and we really enjoyed the scenery from Wyoming to Colorado.




We pulled into a campground in Grand Junction, Colorado, and plugged in. As soon as we did that, we were able to charge our devices, use the microwave oven, and the fridge started getting power. We stayed put, and did more laundry and housekeeping.




Saturday morning everything was good to go, and we took a day trip to Moab, Utah. We visited the Arches National Park. Badlands was breathtaking, Mount Rushmore so impressive, Devil's Tower incredible, and now Utah's Arches were almost overwhelming.

God's country, for sure!




What an amazing week it has been. We have had a great time traveling as a family, and seeing places we've never been to. The best part? We are still in the middle of our trip. And what's next? We're not sure, yet:) We're at a conference in Colorado, now, and haven't quite decided which way to go from here.

Stay tuned!

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Hui, mikä viikko takana! Paljon ajamista itärannikolta länteen. Uusia paikkoja, uusia nähtävyyksiä, ja paljon yhteistä aikaa perheen kanssa. Matkan kohokohtia tähän asti ovat olleet Laura Ingalls Wilder'in kotimuseo, South Dakotan Badlands-kansallispuisto ja presidenttien päät Mount Rushmore'lla, Devil's Tower Wyomingissa, Coloradon kauneus ja Moab'in alue Utah'in osavaltiossa. Nyt olemme Coloradossa konferenssissa, emmekä tiedä vielä minne suuntaamme seuraavaksi:)

Tässä tällainen pikakelaus viikon reissuista, yritän tehdä yksityiskohtaisempia postauksia eri nähtävyyksistä, jossain välissä. Netti on ollut vähän surkeaa matkan varrella, ja kun joka päivä ollaan vierailtu uusissa paikoissa, ja kuvia on tullut otettua muutama (!), ei ole jäänyt aikaa tietokoneelle.

Upea reissu kyllä ollut!