Sunday, July 1, 2001
Actually its not Sunday now, its early Monday morning, but lets pretend shall we! Its kind of nice how the fog is lying in the valley of the South Dakota Badlands right now as I write this, just looks like a big pillow you want to jump into. To bad I missed the colors of sunrise to take pictures of with this fog. But before I forget this entry is about yesterday, so I better get back to that.
I packed up camp in North Dakota early Sunday morning and did a scenic drive through the park. As I got out of the car many times for pictures I came to realize just how windy it was out that morning. I decided that if it was going to be this windy and gross out today that I would rather be driving and getting some distance rather then hiking in less then desirable conditions. I still took a lot of pictures before leaving though. I was actually very tempted to do one of the hikes that was on the map I had, it sounded like it would go through some interesting ground formations that i'd like to photograph. But when I got to the start of the hiking trail I found this massive bull buffalo grazing there, so obviously I thought better of doing the hike, I mean I don't care how nice a trail is I don't want to go on any hike where the hike leader is a buffalo!
So after taking numerous pictures in the park in North Dakota I got back on the road and headed south. There is two main park entries into Roosevelt National Park the one I was in was the north end, I thought about checking out the south end campgrounds too but decided against and continued on to Rapid City, South Dakota.
Once in Rapid City, since it was still early, I went into their "SUPER" mall and did some shopping. Found the glasses I had wanted to buy, at a great price so I was happy! It was funny when I was trying to buy the glasses at the sunglass hut I had to spell out my name for the sales lady to enter into her computer. I had to spell it out a few times before she got it all but what was funny was how I'd say the letter "z'eee" as "z'ed" and the sales woman repeatedly corrected my English and said z'eee over top of me. She must have thought I was illiterate or something hehe, "damn Canadians" hehe. She was nice though about it. One interesting note: As I drove into Rapid City I passed by the National Cemetery. I think I now have a really good idea how Flanders Field must look, the countless perfectly patterned crosses on the low rolling hills was very artistic, in a sad gloomy kind of way.
After my shopping I took a scenic drive from Rapid City to the nearby Badlands National Park. I did a bit of hiking late that evening, actually to be honest I did the hike twice that night, I just liked it so much! Naw actually I forgot my hat up there after taking a few pictures and didn't think about it till I was nearly back at the car. So I got a lot of exercise that night. After that I went "home" to the campsite and watched a little movie that the rangers had on talking about how the badlands are created and the types of wildlife that I might find out there, and most interesting was the talk about fossils in the park including the finds of turtles from prehistoric times that were in excess of 12 feet across in size, I can't imagine a turtle that big! Very cool. After the movie it was time for bed! | 
