While some may say that driving the flat, straight roads of Minnesota and South Dakota are less than exciting, they may not realize that they could have visited the one and only Jolly Green Giant!
Our Jolly Green Giant visit was just in time as the remaining miles were through horrible rain storms. Visibility was awful and the spray coming off the trucks was blinding. We had planned on stopping at 1880s Town, but due to the storms, they had closed it that morning.
Thankfully, we made it to Badlands on the other side of the storms and enjoyed a scenic drive up to Wall. Badlands was a surprising park in many ways. First, it’s a free roam park meaning that you’re allowed to hike anywhere you’d like. Second, they encourage visitors to help the paleontologists find fossils. There are bulletin boards filled with pictures of visitors who discovered fossils while hiking and reported their findings to rangers. Paleontologists then head out to the sites and determine the validity of the findings. Amazingly enough, hundreds of new fossils are found each year by visitors.
Knowing we were planning to visit Badlands the next morning, we didn’t spend too much time there. The visibility was awful from smoke and we were definitely curious about Wall Drug. As it turns out, we could have spent much longer at Wall. Although it’s 100% tourist-driven, it was entertaining learning about the mix of history and tourism. The girls loved all the little shops and quirky bits. We ended up enjoying dinner in their cafe before heading to the hotel for the night.
SEA 2 Shore 
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