I woke up for about an hour around 4am and got some pictures of the sunrise.

Then, thankfully, I was able to fall back asleep and we all woke up around 7:30am. We ate breakfast and packed our day bags for some short, easy hikes.

First we stopped at an overlook and climbed the mounds.

Nova wanted to take a picture holding her siblings in her hand. We almost got it right!

Cal wanted to try using the point and shoot camera and took some nice pictures.

Then we went on the fossil hike where they show examples of the kinds of fossils found in Badlands.

After that,we stopped at the visitor center. The kids picked up Junior Ranger books and earned their first badges.

We did the Door trail next which is a boardwalk through a natural door or opening in the rock formation. At the end of the boardwalk, there is a semi-off-trail hike you can do. We went part way, taking cues from. Nova when it was time to turn back. She is still building her confidence with hiking so it’s best to take her lead and not push her too far.

The kids enjoyed climbing around the ravines and buttes.

We saw a big horn sheep on a far away butte.

We thought we were done then but on the way out of the park we decided to stop and get a picture with the park sign.

Then we saw prairie dog feeding and stopped to do that! You get a bag of peanuts and toss them to the prairie dogs. Because they’re used to people they let us get pretty close. They did not seem super interested in the peanuts (though they did eat some) but we had a great time.

Finally we were ready to head back to the campsite for lunch. Today I just put out all of our lunch supplies and made a smorgasbord. I think we will keep doing lunches like that because it’s easy and everyone gets what they want.

After a siesta we went to Wall Drug which is another tourist trap but we did enjoy it. This post is getting long so I will just put the pictures below.

We had dinner back at the campsite. Cal grilled the chicken while Nole and Asa threw the football. Then Esme and Nova served up the fudge we bought at Wall Drug. Nova said it was a really good day and we all think we will sleep well tonight.