It was a glorious day and we arrived in Badlands early when it was still very quiet. We drove along the rim of Sage Creek, which was green and lush with grass against rocky outcrops of light grey - a really lovely scene and so peaceful. Prairie dogs were standing, basking in the sunshine - but not all good for them as we heard later that at dawn an owl was going from burrow to burrow looking to breakfast on a baby or two.

Then things got very much more spikey and less green; quite an amazing landscape and we took a short walk along a trail and got near to a mother and young pronghorn (what the Americans call antelope). There were also loads of bison.

We lingered as long as we could but with a 300+ mile journey ahead we pressed on to the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre on the Lakota Reservation. Not a story for here but we wanted to remember this event and were hoping for a meaningful marker of the tragedy. As we drove through the Reservation it was obvious that this was a poor area, with homes and yards uncared-for and yet medical centres and schools newly built (government funded?). As we were reading the story on a board at the site we were approached by Native Americans pleading poverty (probably true as they claim 90% unemployment) and selling stuff. We bought a few bits and went up to the graveyard. Again it was a bit sorry looking and not what we expected. I am sure it is a complicated situation.

As a complete change of mood, we stopped at a thing called Carhenge - a replication (?) of Stonehenge made from cars and rather nuts.

Driving on we stopped for the night near Scottsbluff and will see what that holds in the morning.