Though we could've easily spent another week in the Black Hills, we opted to press on and take the scenic route into the Badlands, and desert N.P. due East. This ended up a frustrating day because the roads were not well marked on our maps, and we drove past the dirt road leading into the bottom of the park.

We didn't notice this until we reached Pine Ridge, S.D. (about 1 mile from Nebraska), so had to loop back up. This error was parshly salvaged by taking a route past Wounded Knee Memorial, where we met some very nice Indians and visited briefly. Once we got up to the park, we were noticing that we couldn't stop consuming large liquid, and getting out of the car for even a few minutes immediately produced copious amounts of sweat.

Then we learned what the temperature was when we got to the park entrance- 114 degrees.

Needlesss to say, we would not be spending as much time here as anticipated. There are some very distinct formations in this park. It is more dirt than rock, collected over many years, and the strong winds quickly coated our bodies and inside of the car with dust. It felt a bit like being a construction worker.

One thing was apparent driving through the park- it would be an incredible place to watch a sunset. So, we waited until the afternoon when it was much cooler (85) to go for a hike. We took a really great trail up some rock piles and onto a plataue where there was no end to places of exploration.

At this point it was late and we both felt so disgusting that we decided not to camp in the park, and instead head up to Wall, S.D., where we found a campground that we could have potentially stayed. But there were many drunk people who'd gotten there hands on a karaoke machine, and were blasting badly sung music.

So, we "borrowed" the campgrounds shower facility, which was vacant, and drove up the road to a rest area.