Day 8 and 9 - Jewel Cave & The Badlands

On Day 8 we visited Jewel Cave National Monument. We took an one hour and half tour down into the cave. This cave is the second longest in the world with approximately 150 miles already mapped and more to be explored. Spelunking anyone? After the cave exploration, Teresa, Jordan, and I went on an one and half hour horse back trail ride in the Black Hills National Forrest. This campground has 88 horses offering different types of trail rides. We saw mostly deer, but just to go riding through the National Forest was breath taking. Yesterday (Day 9) we left early this morning for the Badlands. On the way we rode through a three mile long bear sanctuary that also included animals native to this area such as wolves, buffalo, different species of bears and deer, etc. Definitely worth the money. From there we stopped at a place call the Wall Drug. The signs along the highway and the actual place reminded me of South of the Border, but on a larger scale. It was basically a big flea market with a few treasures, but mostly junk in my opinion (you just have to Google it to understand what this place is). After lunch we traveled the 21 mile loop through the Badlands National Park with many lookouts along the way. It was an absolute amazing display of God's beauty that pictures we see on the Internet or in the history books does not do it justice. Wait until you see the pics from both of these places that we have visited. Today (Day 10) we will be off to Billings Montana for a stop over on our way to West Yellowstone for a three day visit of Yellowstone National Park. This has truly been an amazing trip so far. Everyone is getting along for the most part (of course we have our moments). We have had Internet service, but no cable hookup yet. Most campgrounds expect you to have your own satellite, which we don't. So we have not see much TV, which is ok with me except we feel a little out of touch with the latest news. Until tomorrow...