America's Badlands National Park

These photos were taken as we rode through the Badlands National Park. The park ride is an approximately 40 mile loop that winds through the park's valleys, ravines and gullies with plenty of opportunities to pull over and take in the views. Although the landscape is stark with few trees and little grass, the Badlands definitely has a special beauty of its own. The first settlers that arrived here after crossing the vast grasslands of middle America must have found this disappointing as not much of anything can grow in this environment. There is no wonder why this is called the Badlands                                  

The Man the Myth the Legend at Mt Rushmore

George Washington was one of America's founding fathers. His personal mottoes

were: "Deeds, not words"  and   "For God and My Country"

We took this photo after we rounded the bend from the more popular front view of Mt Rushmore. The side profile of George Washington is a lesser photographed view that we had never seen before so we felt the need to pull over and snap a photo. Isn't it amazing how the sculpture was able to capture the profile of George Washington just by blasting stone.