We drove to the Badlands, South Dakota. Badlands National Park is about:
- the geography, the animals, and how people get along in this environment and with these animals.
For starters, the view goes on forever. This IS the beginning of the prairie lands.
the geography
These massive rock formations would have posed quite the challenge in the days of the wild west when pioneers were travelling west to settle. This area was of course already inhabited by Native Americans, mainly various tribes of the Lakota Nation. To manage in this place, the Lakota learned to follow the bison (buffalo) as their main source of food and pelts; they were nomads and master horsemen.
The rock formations were built up by lava from volcanoes, from silt deposited by rivers and inland seas, and then shaped by thousands of years of erosion which have worn away the rest of the rock leaving these hardened buttes (hills) and windswept crests. The rocks are striped in colourful bands as erosion allows us to see all of these layers.
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rocky peaks rise above the rest of the prairie grasslands.
Early in the morning the birds sang and sang from the peaks. Extraordinary! |
the animals
We hoped to see some wildlife. We had no idea what we would encounter.
Here are some samples of our experiences…
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| Early morning hiking - no other tourists! |
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| snakeskin - not a rattlesnake, |
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| when hiking in North America, you have to watch your step |
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| the Easter bunny |
In North America, children wke up on Easter morning and are surprised to find that the Easter bunny has left them treats- usually chocolates, candy and sometimes spring toys like skipping ropes, frisbees, or basketballs. This Easter, we found the real Easter bunny living under our cabin.
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| marker for GPS sattelite |
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prairie dogs live in prairie dog towns
Check out this prairie dog doing some home renovations. |
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| Cattle ranching is the thing to do here. |
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| guards keep cattle in the fields - they are afraid of these grates | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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Deer were everywhere. We loved to watch them bound. These ones grazed by our cabin every night. Take a look -
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| deer tracks |
A busy day for the mountain sheep.
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| first sign of something bigger |
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| Bison! |
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| Very large bison....very close.... |
We stayed in a a cozy cabin.
People come to take lots of photos- like us.
Campgrounds are available for people with tents and campers. You can also bring your own horse to the Badlands and there is a special campgound where ou can stay with your horse. Cool, eh?
There are some lovely trails in the Badlands Park. Some have displays, like this fossil trail. At the information centre there are displays, movies, and some interactive artifacts. Many are accessible for people with disabilities such as people in wheelchairs.
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| displays on the trail give you info |
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| you can bring your horse camping |
Some people come to hunt. Hunting is illegale inside the park, but people hunt on the ranches nearby.
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| hunter in camouflage |
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| He is hunting wild turkey - hopefully not this one |
As you can see the Badlands pis a place pretty much away from everything. This was also noticed by the American military. Nearby is the site of the Minuteman Missile. In the Cold War, 800 of these missiles were placed in secret locations around rural America all pointed at Russia. Each contained a nuclear warhead.At the end of the Cold War they were deactivated. But they were also replaced by 400 more powerful ones. It was weird because we could not find this site on our GPS tracking system. Hmmm. That was really weird.
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| the missile site- literally in the Badlands |
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| there is a glass top so you can see the missile |
Older people do other crazy things in the park. This college student brought her ceramic hippo, Clarence, with her and was documenting his adventures. Here is her website.
Badlands? They all seemed good to us.
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