[SummitPond]

Originally Posted by notanlines

Let me throw this wet blanket if you will: After 15 minutes driving slowly through Badlands National Park you will wish you opted for the quilt show. And no, this is not an exaggeration.

OOH! Harsh! When we were there the temperatures were bitterly cold (this was late middle of May) and the spring rains kept coming - but let up for a few hours the one day we were there and we made the circuit from the east gate to the Wall exit. It was stunningly different and worth the detour we made from MN.

We stayed at the Badlands Motel & Campground, just past the park's campground on the south side of the park, east entrance. Half the campground was flooded out at that time. The park's campground was high and dry, but we had made reservations months before - so who knew?

Originally Posted by chuckster57

If I remember “cave of the winds” is there. The tour is well worth it.

Three cheers on this recommendation. Ditto on Custer State Park.

Originally Posted by ctbruce

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There is as Minute Man silo museum nearby. Didn't see it but would have liked to.

There are actually three sites associated with the Minuteman 2 complex: the museum (where you can find out about where to go for the other two sites), the silo (which anyone can view) and the control center (which you need to make reservations at least 24 hours in advance, via the Park Service web site). All are very interesting. A book on the topic of nuclear-tipped ICBMs and related delivery systems is Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by
Eric Schlosser (Penguin Press, 2013). There was a NOVA special on the just the Damascus Accident part of the book, but the book is much better and more detailed.