GossSquatch Outdoor Adventures

 During the Cold War , the United States and the Soviet Union lived under the constant shadow of what strategists politely called Mutually Assured Destruction — the idea that if either side launched a nuclear strike, they'd receive an equally devastating one in return before the smoke even cleared. It was the geopolitical equivalent of two people holding grenades and agreeing not to pull the pins. Worked great. Very relaxing time in history. While I'll leave Russia's side of the story to better-read people than me (thanks for trying, high school history), I do know quite a bit about how the U.S. prepared for the unthinkable. Scattered across remote regions of the country — out of sight, out of mind, but never out of reach — the military positioned nuclear missile sites ready to launch at a moment's notice. We touched on one of these in our Everglades article with the Nike Missile Site . Today, we're heading to the wide open plains of South Dakota to visit the Minu...

 If you caught our last post on the mammals of the Badlands, you already know this park punches well above its weight when it comes to wildlife. Bison, ferrets, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs — the mammal roster alone is enough to fill a full day of wide-eyed staring out the car window. But the Badlands doesn't stop at mammals. Look up, and something with wings and bad intentions is probably circling. Look down on the trail, and you'd better be watching where you put your feet. This is Part 2 of our Badlands wildlife series. Today we're covering birds, reptiles, amphibians, and butterflies — and we're starting with a safety section, because one of the animals in this post bites and means it. A Word on Snake Safety The prairie rattlesnake is the Badlands' only venomous snake, and while bites are extremely rare and no fatalities have ever been recorded in South Dakota, this is still the section you want to have read before you're on the trail. Rattlesnakes like t...