The Badlands stretch for dozens of miles behind me in the picture below!

Any wonder why they earned their name?!  From Wikipedia:

The term badlands represents a consensus in North America. The Lakota called the topography "Makhóšica", literally bad land, while French trappers called it "les mauvaises terres à traverser" – "the bad lands to cross". The Spanish called it tierra baldía ("waste land") and cárcava ("gully"). The term badlands is also apt: badlands contain steep slopes, loose dry soil, slick clay, and deep sand, all of which impede travel and other uses. Badlands form in semi-arid or arid regions with infrequent but intense rain-showers, sparse vegetation, and soft sediments: a recipe for massive erosion.

We also explored the Black Hills region.  One interesting site I was unaware of is the 60-year old project to carve out a monument to 'Crazy Horse' intended to rival Mt. Rushmore.  The mountain carving will eventually resemble the figure on the motorcycle gas tank below, which is on a Harley Davidson covered in numerous other fancy airbrush scenes from the project's history. 

The Harley is on display in the visitor's center and is being raffled off later this year as a fundraiser for the Crazy Horse Memorial.  The project has been completely financed through private funds since it was launched in 1929.  Perhaps that explains why it has taken 60 years from the first blasting in 1948 to progress to the point you can see in my picture directly below.  Notice the outline for the horse's head and ear located near the edge of the rock at the right of the picture.

Below is a photo I snapped of an informational poster in the visitor's center.  It gives you a sense of the scale and ultimate appearance of the monument.

The photo above is of Chief Standing Bear meeting with sculptor Korczak Ziólkowski, who made the project his life's work from the late-20s until his death in 1982.

Why do you think "Red" man is capitalized above, while "white" man is not?  Does it matter?  I will address the subject of 'political correctness' more generally speaking in my next post.

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Day 99---316.9 miles traveled, 4 hours and 51 minutes of moving time, 44 minutes of stopped time, 65.2 miles per hour average moving time, 56.6 miles per hour overall average, and a max speed of 84.4 miles per hour.  Day 100---317.5 miles traveled, 6 hours and 20 minutes of moving time, 50 miles per hour average moving time, and a max speed of 74.8 miles per hour.