Trip Log Day 9

September 17 – Day 9
Total Miles: 1735 (includes some backtracking to look for the lost wallet)

Wall is an interesting town, downtown is mostly Wall Drug which is actually more like a mall for tourists. The Sunset Inn is a nice small motel within easy walking distance of Wall Drug, and only a few blocks from the rest of “town”. Clean & comfortable.

There's not much in the way of restaurants, the Pizza shop in Wall Drug was, reasonable but not something I'd go out of my way for.

Heading south out of town will take you to the Badlands National Park. There's some fascinating geology here – it actually reminds me of Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, not as deep or colorful but Badlands covers a lot more area. I think there are some excellent photo opportunities here, but timing is everything with subject matter like this. To get the grand landscape you need either some good clouds for B&W or you need to be there before sunrise or just before sunset to put some color into the otherwise almost colorless rock.


In hindsight (wonderful thing hindsight) I perhaps should have stuck with the original plan of following Hwy 2 across North Dakota. The rest of the trip across SD is mostly grassland, which I think needs more weather than I had – not that I have anything against clear blue sky, but generally speaking, it's not my favorite for photography.

As it happens my first stop was for fuel in Chamberlain – where I found and empty jacket pocket, where the wallet should be. That pretty much put an end to the day.