Our Life in Illinois: The Needles Highway

Badlands National Park is a national park in southwestern South Dakota that covers 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires, and a largely undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States.

The park's highest point is 3,340 feet (1,020 m).Originally authorised as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929. It was re-designated a national park on November 10, 1978.

Bighorn Sheep

Prairie Dog

In the middle of nowhere in a bar in the Town of Scenic we met another Colombian!

The Bar in Scenic

This Car never left the Badlands!

South Dakota Highway 87 is a highway running through the Black Hills of South Dakota. The road's northern end is U.S. Route 16 and U.S. Route 385 about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Hill City. The road's southern end is U.S. Route 385 about 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Pringle, or 14 miles (23 km) north of Hot Springs.
The highway passes through Custer State Park. The northern 14 miles (23 km) of the highway is also known as the Needles Highway.
The highway is named after the high granite "needles" it winds among. Access to the Needles Highway requires a Custer State Park entrance license, making that portion of SD 87 a toll road. The highway passes through two tunnels blasted through sheer granite walls—Iron Creek Tunnel at mile 25 (40 km), and Needles Eye Tunnel at mile 31 (50 km). Due to the narrow roadway, sharp turns, and low tunnels, the road has very little traffic. The vehicles that do travel this road are almost exclusively sightseers.

Groundhog

White Mountain Goat

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota. Sculpted by Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents: George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865).The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres (5.17 km²)and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.

Custer State Park

Custer State Park is a state park and wildlife reserve in the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota. The park is South Dakota's largest and first state park, named after Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. In 1964 an additional 22,900 acres (93 km²) were added to the park, and it now covers an area of over 71,000 acres (287 km²) of hilly terrain and is home to many wild animals.
The park is home to a famous herd of 1500 free roaming Bison. Elk, Mule Deer, White-Tailed Deer, Mountain Goats, Bighorn Sheep, Pronghorn (Antelope), Mountain Lions, and Feral Burros also inhabit the park. The park is famous for its scenery, its scenic drives (Needles Highway and the wildlife loop), with views of the Bison herd and Prairie Dog towns.