Day Five-Mt. Moriah Cemetery, Badlands National Park

Holy Moly! I almost forgot about the last day of sightseeing while out West! After a quick breakfast (well, somewhat of a breakfast, due to Covid, there were very limited supplies!) at Starbucks, we headed up the mountain a bit to see the grave sites of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Even though the two were just friends, she had asked to be buried next to him there. Sheriff Bullock was buried there as well, but 725 feet up the mountain, and we did not make the climb up to see his grave, but I’m sure he has an amazing view of the gulch and the city of Deadwood. Mt. Moriah Cemetery was much busier than I expected for sure, but very peaceful!

Statue of Wild Bill in Deadwood.

Wild Bill’s view and the river beside the town.

Graves and views from Mt. Moriah Cemetery. This is Calamity Jane’s grave.

No laughing but this was my first trip to Badlands National Park when I’m guessing I was about 11 and Jill would have been 8ish? And yes, that’s a camera in my hand!

After leaving Deadwood, we headed east towards home. We made our first stop at Badlands National Park; I had forgotten how beautiful it was. The first time I visited I remembered lots of little flies everywhere; we did not see those on this trip! It was hot as Hades and we hiked a short hike where Max and Joe climbed everywhere. The strangest part of these formations was that they felt like mud. Hard to climb; I was most worried about finding a snake! Thankfully we did not:) Here are some of the photos of this gorgeous area!

The boys loved climbing!

Next we headed back over the highway to the Minute Man National Historic Site. We missed the silo tour this trip so that’s a must-see next time. We were short on time but were able to see a few cool things from the Cold War!

Finally we were homeward bound. In Iowa after heading through Minnesota this time we stopped at the world’s largest truck stop! It was huge with about 8 fast food places inside and tons of kitschy shopping too! The boys were ready to get home and see their puppies though so it was a fast stop!