Road Trip - Day 6

The apex of our ‘planned’ trip was the Badlands.  That required another hundred miles east.  As we approached the park at midday, temperatures were hovering over 100 degrees.  With some trepidation we chose a mile and a half hike through the strange spires.  We enjoyed the surreal landscape but could feel ourselves starting to overheat. On our return route we needed to wait behind a large group of young people trying to descend a ladder.  The line would be 45 minutes and we would have wilted.  We were bad examples and scrambled down a side path instead. When we got back to the car, it was 106 and we were feeling the start of heat exhaustion.  Our stay in the park was short and ‘sweet’ and we high tailed it to our next destination: Wind Cave National Park.  We were fortunate to get in a cave tour before closing and enjoyed the mile and a half walk through the 53 degree cave.  Wind Cave is an impressive 195 miles of caverns with unique box work formations.  A late evening drive brought us to Casper, Wy and the best dumpy trumpy of the trip for $49, which was better than the car option in the heat.