West - Day Eight - June 30, 2005

Today, we slept in a bit and then got going to Badlands National Park. It's about an hour and a half drive east from Keystone. We decided to take the back roads again (Route 44) and saw virtually no one on the road. We got there by noon and spent the next four hours doing several different short hikes. The scenery was breathtaking. The landscape was open (no shade), dry and very hot so we had a long day before we knew it. It was also a day of kids "bugging" each other a bit more though Noah was definitely the good role model and therefore got to go in the pool back at the hotel while the others tried to fall asleep. I must admit that I was really tired that night so it was catching up to me. I hoped the next day would be a new day!