From Badlands to Black Hills

Today was really hot. At 10:30am it was so hot we both began to slowly melt (Including the so-called Australian).  The temperature on the ground was well over 40 degrees Centigrade. Hot enough that given the choice, an Aussie would spend the day in the pool and a Canadian would start to think that whoever came up with this idea of 'Global Warming', might actually be onto something.
 
A quick visit of Mitchell's "famous" Corn palace and we headed off, with air conditioning on full blast, for the Badlands. Why are they called the 'Badlands'? I'd say that whoever came up with the name was most definitely hot, dusty and sore from having traveled over it. Colin said quite emphatically 'I have never seen anything like it'. He tended to reuse that phrase as we visited yet more remarkable natural wonders through out the day.
 
Our next stop was in Keystone were went on a delightful drive around Custer State Park, saw rock formations (some of which were man made), and drove on several "Curly Q's"  (or "Pigtail") roads, which involves a dizzying spin where the road curls and passes over itself to negotiate sudden elevation rises or drops.
 
We saw a couple of animals (the biggest Buffalo I've ever seen) and a quick peek at Mt. Rushmore, with its disembodied heads - more on that in our next entry!