Out West 2016 - Day 4

May 30, 2016 (Monday)

Badlands National Park

Per recommendations, we started the day early with arriving to the Minuteman Missile National Historical Site. Tours of the Delta-01 Launch Control Facility are limited to six people and the free tours fill up fast.  We arrived 20 minutes before the visitor center opened and there was already a large line.  We ended up getting on the 10:30 tour. Tours are available every 30 minutes.

Badlands National Park

While waiting for the tour, we checked out the fantastic visitor center and then headed just down the road to the Badlands National Park.  While at the Badlands Visitor Center, we watched the video and checked out the displays. We also had time to do a short hike before heading back to the Minuteman Missile site for the tour. The 40-minute tour was quite interesting; the guide was excellent. He was in the military and actually had worked in the building we toured.

Prairie Dogs at Badlands National Park

Minuteman Missile Tour

After finishing up the Minuteman Missile tour, we headed back to the Badlands where we finished driving thru the park loop. We saw a variety of wildlife, but the best wildlife was a couple of days later – so keep reading!

Once done with the drive loop we stopped by the Delta-09 Launch Facility (missile silo) – the missile is very large! It was mega hard to get a photo, so you will just need to go visit the site if you want to view it.

 Continuing west, we made a pit stop at the famous “Wall Drug”. Tons of souvenir stuff, but not much else.

We were able to stop by the Ellsworth Air Force Museum, which was recommended by our Minuteman Missile tour guide. The museum was free and definitely worth visiting if time allows.

We checked out the town of Rapid City – “The City of Presidents” – finding all the president statues!

South Dakota Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force

Crazy Horse Memorial

The Crazy Horse Memorial was having a weekend food drive, so we spotted and bought some cans of food – this allowed us to enter the site for free. The normal fee, at this time, is $28.00 per car.  The first blasting at Crazy Horse was back in June of 1948. The sculptor for this memorial was Korczak Ziolkowski. The memorial honors the Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, who was killed at Fort Robinson in 1877. The project started in May 1947 with $174.  The 20-minute video in the Visitor Center provides excellent background about the challenges faced while construction.  Crazy Horse’s face was completed in June 1998. The current focus is on Crazy Horse’s hand and the Horse’s Mane area. In 2015, 170 tons of rock was removed from those areas. It is going to take many years before the sculpture is complete. We ate at the restaurant and it was excellent. The local favorites were very tasty!

We stayed the night at the Best Western Buffalo Ridge Inn in Custer, SD. Custer was a cute town – throughout the town are a number of hand-painted buffalo sculptures.