July 4th in the Badlands, South Dakota

  We began our day at sunrise, wanted to see the sunrise in the badlands and also it was going to be 97 degrees so got our hiking done early. Headed in the Badlands only a few other crazys out early too. Of course they are photographers. So we walked to a place called window and door see the sunrise

 and then tried to begin our more strenuous hike The Notch. 1.5 miles Moderate to strenuous. After meandering through a canyon, now I mean meandering,  we could not find the trail. (side note here in the badlands there are no set trails and you can walk most anywhere, not crazy about that, I think we got an extra half mile or more in, but that was good because we got to see a big horn sheep that we followed for a while and got some good pics. 

So after finding what we thought was the trail it began to climb and we see the ladder the defining object that now we know we are on the correct trail, a log ladder and follows a ledge to "the Notch" for a dramatic view of the White River Valley. Watch for drop-offs. Not recommended for anyone with a fear of heights. (Oh boy Steve is not going to be Happy on this one shhhh)

We made it up and back. Now this is all before 10AM. Ok lets check out the town of Wall and the 5 cent coffee and homemade donuts. (I think we earned it)

This is a really cool place ,family own business before the depression and it's still family owned. If any of you have been of South of the border in your travels (way back not now) it is said that they took the marketing from the Walls Drug. It started with a marketing of just offering FREE cold ice water. Today it is a booming business. thumbs up
So along the way there we got to knock some more wild life pics off the bucket list.
Mule deer, mountain goats and of course the cutest prairie dogs. Oh I could watch them for a long time.

For the Evening of the 4th Rodeo going to do a new post