Today started in Deadwood at our KOA cabin:

We only had a couple of hours to drive today, but lots to do so we didn't linger too long. The first destination was Wall. Any traveler down I-90 in South Dakota will have seen a few of these:

We got to Wall around 12:30 and spent a couple of hours eating lunch and exploring the ultimate tourist trap:

Rebecca got a cowboy hat to go with her fancy jeans from Billings. That other guy is jealous of her style:

Everybody had to pose with wooden statues, it's South Dakota law:

Toby and I made good use of Rebecca's hat:

Rebecca and I were disappointed that the old, dilapitated piano-playing mechanical ape that played “The Animal Fair” song was replaced with a newer one that played “Alley-Oop” and was no longer terrifying to children:

Finally, the dead-eyed Laber-Smith boys got in some target practice:

We were staying in Cedar Pass Campground in the Badlands that Wall sits at the entrance to, so it was a short drive to our camp. We stopped and got a preview of the Castle Trail. Unfortunately my camera battery chose to die just as a bighorn sheep walked right by us.

We checked in and set up our tents. It was warm and dry with a nice breeze, and the campground was one of the nicest ones we've stayed at:

We got back in the car and drove to the other end of the Castle Trail. There aren't a lot of established trails in the Badlands. Most of them are very short and can be walked in a few minutes. This one was 5 miles, but we only planned to do 2 or so. There were warnings at the other end of the trail about rattle snakes so we were a little nervous but the experience was too cool to pass up. We kept a close eye on the trail but didn't see or hear anything.

Afterward we checked out the Door trail view from the other side of the parking lot:

When we got back to the campground we had time for a leisurely dinner and some more hangout time.

Tomorrow, Sioux Falls.