We spent another day in Southwest South Dakota. One of the things we saw was the Minuteman Missile National Historic site about 20 miles east of Wall. There are several parts to it; a visitor center, the launch control facility and a missile silo. Today's photo is from the Delta-01 launch control facility buried 31 feet underground. The tour was very interesting because our NPS guide knew his stuff. He reminded us of the good old days of the cold war and we were relieved that these missile silos are no longer in use. But Wait!!! There are still 450 active Minuteman III missiles in the US. The Russians still have lots of active missiles as well. Time to start the drills of having the school children hide under their desks again. This is one of the sites that was deactivated as a result of the START talks.

We also drove through the badlands. That was interesting country. It is hard to imagine traversing the thing on foot or on a horse. The formations reminded us very much of parts of the John Day Fossil Beds we saw in Oregon last summer. Indeed, fossil hunting and preservation is a big part of what is done in these parts.

We headed out to Rapid City to get some tourist information and some food then ended up in Keystone for three nights. I like staying in places for more than one night.