Today was a kind of “family history” day. My (Todd’s) father worked for Rockwell International for 45 years and many of those were spent on the Minuteman projects (as well as MX, the B1 bomber, the Space Shuttle and several others). He really was a rocket scientist and probably the reason I use the phrase “it’s not rocket science” so much 😉
We spent a little time checking out the exhibits at the Visitor Center, mostly cold-war propaganda from both sides some Civil Defense, LCF, and silo artifacts.
Then we toured the Delta-01 Launch Control Facility. Of course due to the Covids we couldn’t go down into the underground control center and were restricted to the crews living quarters and site security room 😒 Then we went a bit further down the road and viewed a (decommissioned) Minuteman II missile in the Delta-09 silo which is pretty thought provoking if you consider what it actually was.
Next we drove up to Wall to visit Wall Drug (apparently it’s a thing). Wall Drug is a massive tourist attraction with an interesting history and you can google their website if you’re really interested. It was packed with bikers and the line to get a donut was far too long so we left empty handed.
It was finally time to visit Bandlands National Park. Bandlands is a large area of mostly tuff that originated from volcanic events in the Black Hills (there are also areas of limestone, sandstone and other sedimentary sources). We’ve visited several areas that are similar throughout the Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Utah and Yellowstone. Some are more interesting (at least to us) such as the Hoodoos of Bryce but none are as extensive as Badlands. There isn’t much color but there is significant banding and weathering that makes picture taking a pursuit of light and shadows. Given enough time, it would be fun to drive back and forth through the park and catch the different areas as the light changes throughout the day. Here’s a few pictures we captured with the time we did have:
Obligatory selfie:
136 miles today, 4,052 total.
