Thursday, August 23, 2018

Historic Downtown & Reptile Gardens - Rapid City, South Dakota


Aug 19 – True to the forecast, it poured rain and was very windy and cold today. We just hunkered down inside the coach. It was nice to have a day off.

Aug 20 
Today was our last day here in the Rapid City area and we didn’t have much planned. We went to the historic downtown and walked around before grabbing some lunch at a Cheesesteak place. Sounded good, but they were tasteless. Should have gone for the Mexican place that was quite busy. 
 Main Street Square




 there were many statues around the downtown area





 Memorial Park






 Rushmore Plaza Civic Center
 Dakota Mill & Grain





Then we went to visit Reptile Gardens which was in the 2014 Guinness Book of World Records for being the world's largest reptile zoo. It was recertified in the 2018 edition.

It was really a nice collection of reptiles and had beautiful botanical gardens. We went to the snake show and the bird show. They also have an alligator show. (seen lots of those) 
















The highlight of the park is the Sky Dome which has 3 levels. There is a huge collection of snakes from around the world as well as lizards large and small. The main level has tropical plants and trees with parrots, lizards, small birds and various other critters loose in there. Including a snake that was up in a tree. There was a guy standing under it and I was taking a photo and he looked up to see what I was taking a photo of and he moved away quickly. The upper level had snakes and other exhibits. 











 I thought this guy was eating a grasshopper, but he is eating a smaller lizard - YIKES!
poor little Anole 

 he's finished eating the Anole



There was also a Prairie Dog town, Giant tortoises and lots of areas geared towards kids. We had an ice cream and headed home. 














Tomorrow we leave for Mitchell, South Dakota. We have a series of short stays to work our way back down south.

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