More from Friday afternoon!

Prairie Dogs!

We pulled of the I-90 to head into Badlands National Park. On the way in, we saw the 'Ranch Store' advertising the opportunity to 'feed the prairie dogs' - so naturally, we pulled in.

They were visible from the carpark! We went in to the store and bought two bags of food - raw peanuts in their shells - and went outside to feed them. What fun - they were SO cute! We even fed them by hand. Ranch Store and two other places have the only white prairie dogs in the world - they are extremely rare, with black skin and white hair but not classified as albino (I have a photo of a white one, but these are regular PD's).

Prairie dogs got their name from the sound that they make when danger is near which are warning 'barks' or 'yips' (yep - we have that on video!).

We entered Badlands National Park - a geological landscape of buttes, spires and rolling grasslands. $15 per car load, valid for visits for 7 days. It is part of the largest undisturbed mixed-prairie rangeland remaining in the US! Within its 244 000 acres roam bighorn sheep, coyotes, black-footed ferrets, swift foxes, bison (buffalo) and mule deer.

We drove the Highway 240 Loop Road. We stopped at various lookouts to take in the beautiful scenery. At the Ben Reifel Visitor Center we were lucky enough to be in time to see a 20 minute film which gave us a general orientation and explanation of the Badlands Park. It was excellent in explaining the chronological history, the story of the Oglala Sioux Tribe (inhabitants) and immigrants from the New World.

How the Badlands were named: The French trappers who explored the west in the early 1800's called the area a 'bad land to cross'. The Dakota Sioux Indians labelled it 'makosica' meaning 'land bad'. When you look at it, you can understand why. There are very few trees, so very few places to shelter from the hot sun and little water. I don't know how those explorers did it, they were made tough in those days..... (and the flies! Drive you mad)

As we continued on our loop drive, we scanned the horizon for any signs of animal life. Looking for bison mainly, but we didn't see the herd. We rounded a corner and suddenly, there on the edge of the road were two pronghorn (antelope). We didn't know that at the time, we were a bit puzzled as to what they were. They weren't frightened of us and we got some really good video and pictures.

Pronghorn are the fastest animals in the Western Hemisphere. They have horns rather than antlers and their horns are unique in that they have prongs and they are shed and regrown each year. Most horned animals never shed their horns. Pronghorn form herds as a defense against predators. If one detects danger it flares its bright white rump patch, signalling the others to flee.

Wow - we certainly had a great afternoon. Arrived in Rapid City by 6pm - tired and very dry from being exposed to both sun and wind all afternoon. Crossing in to South Dakota we are now on 'Mountain Time' so we had to turn our clocks back an hour! Found an excellent Italian restaurant for dinner - oh and red wine, of course!