South Dakota Trip: Badlands National Park and Happy Birthday Justine!

Day 4: 

We spent my birthday at the National Park I was most excited to see - Badlands. I knew if we went for my birthday, we could get in all the hikes I wanted and no one could complain! The pictures do not even begin to do the badlands justice - they are amazing in person! There are so many colors in each formation. Here's a professional shot that gives you an idea: 

I decided my new favorite way to spend my birthday is hiking in a National Park. I may have to make it a tradition. 

Badlands is a long group of formations, so the park is set up for visitors to drive along the top of the badlands with overlooks and hikes along the way. Some of our favorites included: 

 

These cliff swallows. The kids loved watching them come and go from their nests. 

Our long hike to this stunning overlook! This hike led us through a canyon between formations, up the wall of the canyon, the over a ledge on the wall to the overlook. Going down you had to climb down this big log ladder. It was a challenging hike, but well worth it! Lenora said it was one of her favorite parts of the whole trip. 

It was a really long ladder! I was glad Conrad wasn't any shorter because he had a hard time going down some of the rungs. 

Further along the way, we found lots of little formations that the kids could scramble up. They loved it! In one area there were also a variety of fossils. 

One of the coolest formations are called the yellow mounds. The colors are so vibrant! 

After a really fun day exploring the Badlands, we had to stop at the famous "Wall Drug." We were told this was a not-to-be-missed stop. It was a huge drug store, curio-shop, western wear, book store, etc, etc, etc store. I've never seen anything quite like it. We decided to have brithday ice cream while we were there. As we were paying a sweet woman came up, told me what a beautiful family we had, and insisted on buying our ice cream. Afterwards I thanked her and told her it was my birthday. She said she had just wanted to bless someone's life today. She was so kind! She and her husband were headed to Montana to begin a mission trip, so I hope it's going very well for them. 

We found Qdoba for dinner (yay!) then finished off the night with a swim in the hot tub. It was a perfect day to ring in my 35th year.