We had a nice drive from Mitchell to our new campground south of the Badlands National Park. 

Got the camper all setup in a mostly shady spot as it’s supposed to be in the mid 90’s (or higher) this week. Headed into the park for a short walk/scramble around the bluffs. Found our first fossils (of course Donna spotted the first one)!

Today is Donna’s birthday so we decided to go out for dinner. Not a lot of choices here in the middle of nowhere, but chose the Cedar Pass Lodge restaurant. Had Indian Tacos (since it was Taco Tuesday) and then a really tasty dessert. It was Indian fry bread covered with carmel, toffee, and whipped cream. While it wasn’t a birthday cake, it was excellent.

Then did a drive through the western part of the Badlands and enjoyed the scenery, the buttes and hills look very different as the sun starts to go down and the shadows lengthen. Got lucky and saw plenty of prairie dogs, pronhorn antelope and a group of 7-8 mule deer.

We stayed for the evening ranger program about the fossils and geologic history of the park. The bats were out and swooping above the amphitheater eating all the mosquitos the crowd had attracted.

It was followed by a night sky program. The sky was an amazingly clear and the Milky Way was directly overhead, we got to see a few shooting stars and the Chinese Space station as it passed overhead.