Visitor Center - Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site was established in 1999 to "interpret the historical role of the Minuteman II missile defense system as a key component of America's strategic commitment to preserve world peace and in the broader context of the Cold War." Two sites, a launch facility and a launch control facility have been preserved under provisions in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty to allow for historical interpretation of this one aspect of the Cold War.

The historic site preserves and interprets Launch Control Facility (LCF) Delta-01 and Launch Facility (LF) Delta-09 of the 44th Strategic Missile Wing based at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, South Dakota from 1962 until 1994. LF Delta-09 is located about 0.7 miles south of Interstate-90 at exit 116. LCF Delta-01 is located about 0.7 miles north of I-90 at exit 127. The new visitor center opened in 2014 and is located 0.3 miles north of I-90 at exit 131. The former visitor center was housed in a pair of trailers located south of I-90 exit 131 on the way to the Northeast Entrance of Badlands National Park.

The visitor center contains an information desk, bookstore, restrooms, museum, and a multi-purpose room that will double as a theater. The 30-minute park film was in post-production and not available for viewing when I visited in August 2017, but should be available sometime in 2018.

Visitor Center

Sun Tzu quote outside

View from the entrance

Information desk

Museum entrance

Missileers

"Duck and Cover"

Fallout shelter supplies

Number of warheads at the beginning of the coldwar (Blue is USA, Orange is USSR, wall column is total)...

...and through the years since

Four days the world almost ended

The end of the Minuteman II program led to the establishment of the historic site

Bookstore

Entry to the historic site is free. A fee of $6 per adult is charged for a guided tour of the Delta-01 Launch Control Facility. Tours usually sell out weeks to months in advance, so advance planning is required.

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/mimi.

Visitor Center - National Grasslands

In addition to managing the 154 National Forests, the US Forest Service also manages 20 National Grasslands and one National Tallgrass Prairie covering nearly 6,000 square miles. Seventeen of the grasslands are on the Great Plains from North Dakota and Wyoming south to Texas and New Mexico. The other three grasslands are located in California, Oregon, and Idaho. The tallgrass prairie is located in Illinois.

The only visitor center for all of the grasslands is located in Wall, South Dakota. It is administered as part of Buffalo Gap National Grassland. The visitor center houses an information desk, museum, theater, restrooms, and gift shop. A 25-minute video about the grasslands is shown on request. The video does a great job of telling the story of the prairie, including stills and movie clips from the 1930s. However, it is several years old and not as visually crisp due to the production techniques of the time.

I stopped at the visitor center in August 2017.

Entrance hall

Books and maps in the gift shop

Weather dispaly

Grasslands overview

Upland display

Titanothereum fossil

Prairie Dog Town

Wetlands display

Woody Draw display

Touchable animal pelts

Native American display

Cattle ranching

Dust bowl

Grassland consolidation

Arrowheads and their origins

Entry to the grasslands is free.

The visitor center webpage is https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/nebraska/about-forest/districts/?cid=fsm9_028062.

Door Trail - Badlands National Park

Just ¼ mile north of the Window trailhead is the Door trailhead. The trailheads are located in the same large parking area located between milepost 2.5 and 2.8 on the Badlands Loop Road. The Door trailhead is near the northern end of the parking area at milepost 2.5. To reach the trailhead from the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, drive about 2.3 miles northeast on the Badlands Loop Road. Both the large paved parking area and the trailhead are on the south (compass east) side of the road.

The trail is rated as easy by the National Park Service. The first 700 feet of the trail is an ADA-compliant boardwalk with handrails at inclines and elevated locations. Like the Window Trail, the boardwalk provides close-up views of the landscape that aren't possible from the road. About 100 feet before the end of the boardwalk, a short set of stairs leads down to the badlands.

The remaining 0.3 miles of the trail may not be suitable for all visitors because it crosses the natural surface of the badlands with only a series of yellow posts to mark the route. Deep ravines have been eroded into the landscape on both sides of the trail. When wet, the bentonite clay expands and is extremely slippery. The round-trip distance is 0.9 miles.

This is a very heavily trafficked trail due to its short distance, easy rating, and proximity to the road. If you are looking for solitude, this probably isn't the trail for you. We did notice that many people stayed near the boardwalk and didn't venture out very far into the badlands. We walked the trail in August 2017 during our visit to Badlands National Park.

Boardwalk through the upper prairie near the trailhead

The "Door"

Wall to the left of the door

Boardwalk extension to viewpoint

Benches at the end of the boardwalk

View from the railing

Looking down at the results of erosion

View from the left bench

View from the right bench

Numbered trail marker

Looking back at the end of the boardwalk

Vegetation in the damp bottom of a gully

Fractured landscape of the badlands

Badlands Wall

Another view of the wall

Water has cut deep chasms into the clay rock

Carved by stormwater runoff

Another trail marker and more of the wall

The wall is a massive feature in the park

Looking back at "The Door"

Another deep ravine

Tunnel carved by water

More of the badlands

A small butte to the northeast

Trail passes through this gap

The crowds dissipated the further we walked

This ravine provides water, shade, and shelter from wind for these plants

With no easy way forward, it is time to enjoy the view

Ravines on both sides

The aptly named Big Badlands

Reminds me of the Grand Canyon

The Wall

An entrance fee of $20 admits all the passengers of a single vehicle for seven consecutive days to Badlands National Park. A fee of $10 applies to motorcyclists. Other entrance fee options include a Badlands National Park Annual Pass for $40, an Every Kid in a Park 4th Grade Pass for free, and a variety of America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes providing access to most national park, national forest, and BLM fee areas

• Annual Pass for $80
• Military Pass for free
• Lifetime Senior Pass for $80 or $20 annually for those age 62 and older
• Access Pass for free for visitors with a permanent disability

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/badl.