Day 5 - Murdo, SD to Custer, SD

Day 5 – July 5, 2008 – Murdo, SD to Custer, SD.

WORD OF THE DAY: butte (an isolated hill or mountain rising abruptly above the surrounding land).

We left the Sioux Motel, in Murdo, SD this morning, heading west to the Badlands in western SD. Along the way, we stopped in the “1880 Town,” a certain tourist trap along the side of I-90 which contains original old buildings from various South Dakota towns placed to resemble a prarie town. We are still trying to figure out the significance of the year 1880, because a lot of stuff in South Dakota references it.

We got to Badlands in the afternoon. It was cool how the land changed from being flat and grassy to having all of these buttes and valleys. There are colorful buttes

everywhere, and the different colored layers help tell the history of the land. It reminded me (David) a lot of Bryce Canyon Park in Utah, but not as colorful.

Continuing on, we stopped in Wall, SD on the way to Mount Rushmore. We started seeing signs for Wall Drug hundreds of miles away (while still in Minnesota). Wall Drug is basically a giant souvenir shop which used to be a small pharmacy. The story goes that nobody stopped there when it opened in the 1930’s, but then they began offering free ice water to cross-country travelers, and the rest is history. They still offer free ice water and 5 cent coffee!!

Our final stop for the day was at Mount Rushmore, SD (can you believe we are spending this much time in SD?!!). Just before the mountain, you drive through Keystone, SD, which, was the tackiest tourist town we have driven through so far. Mount Rushmore was a lot more built up than expected (they have an amphitheater and a museum inside a modern building at the foot of the mountain).

We ended the day by checking into the Bavarian Inn in Custer, SD. Our room actually had a tiny deck and we all sat on it enjoying our dinner al fresco…

-Updated 7/11 (added dinosaur video)