FUN-travel: Badlands National Park & Hot Springs, SD
August 11, 2018 by Susan Clarke · 2 Comments
Badlands National Park – rolling prairies & grasslands…
…make up the scenery on the two-hour drive via Hwy 44.
- The Loop Road winds through 25 miles…
…of multi colored layered rock formations…
…steep canyons, towering spires & parched basins…
…that preserve the world’s greatest fossil beds…
…of animals from the Oligocene Epoch…
…that’s like 34 million years ago!
- Today bison, bighorn sheep, & prairie dogs inhabit the sprawling grasslands.
Not so FF – They list Hwy 44 as a scenic route and in my opinion it didn’t live up to it! It took twice as long as I-90.
- Hot Springs – Mammoth Site
…contains the greatest concentration…
…of mammoth remains in the world.
- Bones were found in 1974…
…when the site was being developed for a housing subdivision…
…which turned out to be a…
…26,000 year old sinkhole.
FUN-fact – As of 2016, the remains of 61 mammoths, including 58 North American Columbian and 3 woolly mammoths had been recovered. And the first time both species have ever been found together.