How diverse can one day be, we set of from Custer in a blanket of snow in the morning, we made a quick stop at a movie set 'Dances with Wolves', we visited Wall Drug, a store that is now much more than a pharmacy and then we reached our destination for the day - 'The Badlands'. The Lakota people were the first to call this place "mako sica" or "land bad." Extreme temperatures, lack of water, and the exposed rugged terrain led to this name. In the early 1900's, ...

It was December 1931. Dorothy and Ted Hustead had just bought the only drugstore in a town called Wall on the edge of the South Dakota Badlands. When they told their families about the drugstore they found them skeptical. "That town is in the middle of nowhere," a cousin said, "and furthermore, everybody there is flat broke busted." My father-in-law was understanding, but even he said, "You know, Wall is just about as Godforsaken as you can get." They had been op...

Early hours of the morning I was fast asleep but Donna could here a car sliding about seeming to struggle to get out of the campground. Later on when it was time to start the day I put the kettle on as usual and opened a blind to check the weather - 'Oh my god, It's Christmas' is what I said. It was white over with snow, not up on the hills but the campground, our camper, everywhere. We are at 5000 feet above sea level so we are quite high. I measured the snow ...

With our visits of the carved granite mountains done we went off to explore the untouched peaks of the Black Hills. There are a lot of trails here and with limited time we had to choose carefully. We headed for Black Elk peak (also known as Harney Peak). The rock formations along the way were incredible. Great weather and great views from the summit where a 3-storey fire look-out tower still proudly stands but is no longer used. We opted for a different route ...

Continuing east across Wyoming, more great scenery. We were half expecting to see smoke signals and Sioux Indians on the skyline tracking us - watched too many westerns! The small town of Shell was followed by Shell canyon. This narrow twisting passage through towering rocks would have been an ideal place to ambush the white invaders back in the 1800's. Then the road just kept on climbing from 4000 to 9000 feet and into a snow storm. On our way to Grand Teton...