Day 9: Badlands National Park

America's Best Value Inn
Kadoka, SD

I already have 75 pictures of the Badlands in my photo library. I really don't need to take more even if it is a beautiful day. Only if there is something really unique. That was my intention when we set out this morning. So I only took 35 more. Maybe I should say I only kept 35 more. I deleted some. But this place is so fascinating! Steve says the first time he was here as a child, he thought he had landed on the moon.

Here we are driving across endless grasslands.

Then all of a sudden they drop away to this.

We entered at the Pinacles Entrance south of I-90 and took the gravel road west past a prairie dog town that was more of a metropolis. In fact, it went on for so long with cute little rodents (yes, Pat, they ARE cute) sitting at the doors to their holes or scampering around after whatever it is they eat (seeds?), that it began to feel like driving up the east coast from Washington to Boston! Let's just say they have a large gene pool to draw on.

We lunched at the Conata Picnic Area. It was so windy, I got to use the South African table cloth weights I have been carrying in the picnic basket for ages. The wind was sharp enough that we chose the sunny end of the table, although I think you were supposed to be able to turn the table in whatever direction you needed for shade.

We have been here before (witness the 75 pictures already in my Badlands file), but mostly we have driven and stopped at overlooks. This time I told Steve I really wanted to do some of the short hikes at the east end of the park. Mom stayed in the car where she had a good view, and we took off. Cliff Shelf Nature Trail circles the top of a slump that slid off one of the cliffs some time in the remote past and created a basin where trees grow. By circling clockwise instead of counter clockwise we had fewer stairs to climb. The area is pretty lively with tourists, but we still heeded the signs.

The end of the Window Trail was within sight of the car, but still quite a view.

The best was the Door Trail at the far end of the same parking lot. Steve says it was worth the price of admission, which for seniors like us, isn't much. Let's say instead that it is definitley worth the time. (The sign says to allow an hour. We spent about that, but could have spent more.) It is a door right into this incredible moonscape. Visitors are free to scamper where they will, but numbered poles guided us across the labyrinth to an this view. 

It's one thing to view from the road; it is quite another to be down there, a part of the landscape. The walk is level. Although the ground is riddled with eroded ditches, there is no place to fall more than a few feet. I couldn't stop thinking of my grandsons scampering here and there exploring to their hearts content. (Yes, Bella, I know you would explore too, but here we wouldn't have to worry about the boys breaking bones! Just rattlesnakes.)

Back at the parking lot, when I turned around, there was this.

Time to move on.

Thank you, Lord ...

for awesome views.

for a husband who gets excited about beauty.

for a mother-in-law who doesn't mind waiting in the car.

for the colored layers of rock.

for the guys who built the road.

for neat places to walk.

for partial sun throughout the day.

that my life is not as difficult as the homesteaders who came here in the 19th c.