On the morning of the day we left Drumheller, I made a last-ditch effort and bought a small metal dinosaur at the supermarket in front of the station. That day, I spent a dreamy (perhaps due to the heat?) time at the Dinosaur Provincial Park in the badlands, and stayed overnight in Calgary. I flew to Denver before dawn, but found no merchandise at either the Denver Museum of Nature and Science or the shops in the city. The next day, I was finally off to one of my main destinations, Rapid City, South Dakota. I was heading to the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research (BHI), famous for the Sue controversy.
As an aside, on the bus ride from the airport, the bus naturally stopped at a point where you could view the rock carving of the famous president's face, but the guide was surprised that no one paid any attention to it, instead observing the geological strata on the roadside.
At a geological museum we stopped at along the way, I bought a model of Mamenchisaurus so long that it barely fit diagonally into my suitcase, but little did I know that it would soon be mass-produced in Japan... Oh, I think I wrote the same thing before...

The museum within BHI was small, and since there was a dinosaur exhibition centered around T-Rex in Ikebukuro at the same time, and the real Stan was on display there, there weren't any particularly large exhibits. However, the back yard was impressive, with the Acrocanthosaurus that came to Makuhari two years ago being cleaned. The shop was also quite well-stocked, but since I had bought a lot in Tokyo, I only purchased a few items, such as a set of three replica Camarasaurus claws and a small Stan tooth.

Around that time, BHI was in a legal battle over the ownership of Sue, and was running a "Save Sue" campaign. The skull model on the right of the photo and the buckle (purchased in Japan), and the T-shirt on the left of the photo (purchased locally; the hanger is separate) are now extremely rare Black Hills-made Sue goods.

The next day, I spent the entire day not so much excavating as fossil hunting at a BHI dig site. And the result? This! (Photo right) It's the tip of a tooth (about 13mm) identified by Stan Sacrison as a Nanotyrannus. Because of its tiny size, I was allowed to take it home, and it has become one of my family's treasures. The sense of gratitude is different from something you buy... I ended up boasting, even though it goes completely against the theme of my shopping spree trip.
Between the town and the dig site, the vast wilderness of the American West (I really felt the "vastness"!) spreads out. Finally, I'll introduce a dinosaur totem pole (photo left) that I bought at a roadside souvenir shop, which has the feel of a Western dinosaur item.
Next time, it's Utah, the most rewarding destination of this trip.