Riding across the rolling plains of South Dakota, I never expected to run into a place where cacti grow, the earth is almost barren and average summertime temperatures exceed 100 deg. I was very impressed with the landscape. The park was beautiful and anyone driving past the park on I-90 should definately take the scenic drive.
Wildlife seem somewhat scarce to me; however, we were in the park during the hottest part of the day. Our wildlife viewing was limited to a few mule deer, some rabbits, some birds, and praire dogs. At least we saw some wildlife even though it was not reptilian. The park is also home to the endangered blackfooted ferret which would have been neat to see. I saw "BEWARE RATTLESNAKES" signs everywhere. I looked around in every shrub we walked past hoping to get a glimpse of a praire rattlesnake...but had no luck. With so many warnings, I kinda expected them to be everywhere.
Here are some pictures. The scenery was some of the neatest I have ever scene and it would be great to spend a week in the park if given the opportunity. Although we did not see any reptiles, I still thing a 'failure' of a herping trip produced some great photos to share.
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Originally Posted by nathanledet
I am sure if we had went when later in the evening when things were cooling down they would have been all over the place...ha ha.
