Minutemen Missile

The last National Park Junior Ranger badge was earned at Minuteman Missile in South Dakota. This site has 3 locations along I90 east of Rapid City. The first is Delta 1 which is available only by tours which are booked out into September. Delta 9 is a little farther east. You can park and get out and walk over to the site of the former missile and look down 4 stories. Each missile was slightly shorter than four cars parked end to end. The third site is ten miles down the road. At this turn off if you go south you enter the Badlands National Park. If you go north you go to the National Park. This park talks about the build up of nuclear arms since the Russians launched a satellite called Sputnick. There is information about bomb shelters. A turtle on an old black and white television sings a song about "Duck and Cover."  A video shows a little boy riding his bike down the street. An atomic bomb goes off in the distance so the boy jumps off his bike, leaves it in the road, runs to the gutter, lies down and covers his head as if that would help.

They had some atomic looking wall paper in that TV room. This was the most disappointing national park I have ever been to.