We left Custer State Park and headed to Badlands National Park!
Wall Drug
This is a “fun” place to visit…everything from country western clothing to novelty items, food and an actual drug store! It has been here since 1936!
Badlands National Park
The Badlands are an amazing national park with 240,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires surrounded by prairie lands.
The wind was so fierce we could not enjoy the park for a couple days.
Fun Fact: Badlands is one of the world’s richest mammal fossil beds where Acient horses and rhino once roamed.
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site
We toured the Launch Control Facility Delta-01 and actual decommissioned nuclear launch center. The control facility was 31 feet under ground and was manned in 24 hour shifts by 2 highly trained military people. There was a single bed with a curtain where they could take shifts sleeping. This was a fascinating history lesson, although so scary!
Delta-09 Missile Silo
Next we drove to the Delta-09 Missile Silo where we took a cell-phone guided tour of the site. From 1963 until the early 1990s, the missile silo at Delta-09 contained a fully operational Minute Man Missile, bearing a 1.2 megaton nuclear warhead. The Delta-09 missile silo was one of 150 spread across western South Dakota.
The launch facility consists of a silo 12 feet in diameter and 80 feet deep made of reinforced concrete with a steel-plate liner. The door to the silo has been welded and fitted with a glass roof, and an unarmed Missile placed inside…also a frightening piece of history.
Sioux Falls
Our last stop in South Dakota was Sioux Falls. What a pleasant surprise! This town had an artsy feel with cute shops and a vibrant downtown area! Just about a mile from downtown is the actual Sioux Falls, a beautiful urban waterfall.
Enjoy the video!
❤️💕🥰