Midwest Roadtrip 2022: Day 6/9

Good Morning

We woke up to discover the same breakfast waiting for us downstairs for the third day in a row. Do hotels really not change it up? We finished eating, went to our room, packed off, and checked out of La Quinta.

Autumn Leaves

Australia - Great Plains Zoo

We got Starbucks and drove over to Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls. We sat in the parking lot of the zoo while we finished our coffees, noticing that the parking lot was pretty empty. I mean, it was a Thursday morning, and it was raining.

Shortly after walking through the entrance gate of the zoo, we knew we were in for a treat. There were snow monkeys right near the entrance, and they were being playfully active in the rain. There were a few younger monkeys that were jumping on and off the netting just having fun.

Snow Monkey

The next enclosure we went to had a single wallaby and five kangaroo. They were all outdoors, but it didn't take long for the wallaby to decide that he/she was sick of the rain, and the wallaby went inside its indoor area. The kangaroos were all huddled together under a pergola.

We made our way over to the Primate House where we saw squirrel monkeys - they are so small and cute! There even was a nine month old chasing the older squirrel monkeys around trying to get one to play. It was endearing to watch. The baby, Lolo, was born to Daphne and Ned. We also saw colobus monkeys and a ring-tailed lemur.

Squirrel Monkey

Ring-Tailed Lemur

We left the primate house and went to admire the Australian sheep. We had no idea prior to visiting this zoo that Australia is the provider of about 25% of the world's wool!

Australian Sheep

We also got to see Bactrian Camels. We didn't expect to see camels in the Australian area of the zoo - but apparently camels were brought to Australia years ago for their ability to be pack animals. Camels now run feral in the wild of Australia - isn't that interesting?

Bactrian Camel

Bactrian Camel

Our absolute favorite animal in this entire zoo was found in this first Australian area - the Singing dogs. Singing dogs are apparently the same as dingos. It was really only Jeremy and I in the zoo that day, so we had fun singing along with the dingos.

Psssst there's a video on my TikTok if you want to go watch it @ImbeccableImages

Face to Face Farm - Great Plains Zoo

We made our way over to the Face to Face Farm, passing a big-horned sheep on the way. There were all sorts of goats in the farm area, and we were able to feed them!

Goat

Goat

Goat

Jeremy Feeding Goats

African Savannah - Great Plains Zoo

We made our way over to the African area, where we got to see a few zebras pretty up close.

Path to African Savannah

Zebra

We were able to see bongos in the distance. The parent bongos were with their calf in a veterinary field that we couldn't go to.

North America - Great Plains Zoo

The next area was the North American great plains. We saw several animals here including bison, black bears, and grizzly bears.

Grizzly Bear

One grizzly enclosure had a male and a female bear. The female bear was hangry, growled at the male bear several times, banging her food button. After a while, she came outside and found a snack in the pool. This video I took of all of this happening currently has over 30,000 views on Instagram, and over 8,400 likes. My handle is @ImbeccableImages on Instagram if you'd like to follow there.

Asian Cats - Great Plains Zoo

The last area we went to was the Asia area, where we saw a napping Amur tiger, a snow leopard, and a Pallas cat.

Autumn Leaves

Goodbye, Sioux Falls

We left the zoo and grabbed lunch at Taco Bell to eat in the car on the way out of town. We wanted to eat on the road to get to our next destination as quickly as possible. We got on I-90 West and made our way to Wall, South Dakota.

Hello, Wall

Arriving in Wall, we went directly to Wall Drug. There had been a plethora of signs advertising for it along the interstate, so we were intrigued. It was extremely disappointing. We shopped at the touristy stores within Wall Drug, and explored the different areas of it. We found a giant Jackalope, so of course I had to get a picture of Jeremy with it.

Wall Drug

Jeremy on a Jackalope

We went to have dinner at Badlands Saloon and Grill. We got cheese curds for an appetizer. Jeremy got chicken fried steak, and I got chicken bacon ranch pizza.

After dinner, we took a very brief drive through town, taking a look at their city park, and then we went to our hotel. We checked into America's Best Value Inn, watched one of our favorite shows, and went to sleep.