Vacation part 1: South Dakota

Earlier this summer, Rick and I decided to head out west to see Yellowstone since neither of us had ever been there. So, for the past week or so, we've been on vacation. We drove out west, which made for some interesting stops on the way out.

After the first ISU football game Thursday night (which we won, by the way), we headed west through South Dakota first thing Friday morning. Our first stop was the Mitchell Corn Palace. It was pretty amazing the way they used corn to decorate! There's a gym and a stage inside and many of the town's activities are held inside the palace. It was a nice stop along the way.
We then trudged onward to Wall and the famous Wall Drug store. For those of you that haven't been there, it's interesting, but the signs leading up to Wall might have been more exciting. There were shops and a restaurant and some good picture-taking opportunities.

We spent the night in Wall and Saturday morning headed to the Badlands National Park where we got our first taste of wildlife. The scenery changed very quickly and I was taken back by the beauty of the land, even though it seemed barren.

We drove on to the Black Hills area and took in the usual sights. Although I had been there in high school, Rick had never been so we took it all in. First up was Mount Rushmore:

And then on to Custer State Park. As we drove in, Rick said he would like to see a bison. He didn't have to wait long as there was one on the road as we drove in! By the end of the day, we were sick of bison and hoping to see other wildlife.

We headed to Wind Cave, but skipped out on the tour. Found our hotel and some supper and called it a day.

Sunday morning we headed to the Crazy Horse Monument--since I was last there, they have put up a nice Native American Museum, but the monument looks much the same as when I last saw it.

Then it was on to Wyoming! More on that later; here are more photos from the South Dakota leg of the trip: