We took off one morning for the Badlands of South Dakota. We got on the freeway and went through Rapid City and east to Wall, SD. The best thing about Wall, SD is that it’s where the turnoff toward the Badlands is located. My, my, a tourist trap if I ever saw one. We had been reading billboards for Wall Drug for 50 miles, which provided some entertainment, so we decided to check out Wall Drug to see if they really did have anything worth buying. Lots and lots of other travels had been reeled in, too. It was interesting and we did find a few things to buy and then we decided to try out their “homemade” ice cream. We would have preferred a McDonald’s soft serve. Never have had such tasteless ice cream in my life. We did, however, buy some very tasty penuche. So, all in all, we were glad we stopped at Wall Drug in Wall, SD. By the way, that’s about the only thing in Wall, SD. Just a great big complex of many small shops that each sold something different. More like the Wall Mall but not roomy and nice.
We took off toward the Badlands and traveled through a portion of the protected grasslands. I’ve read about the prairie grass many times but never quite envisioned what it was like. Well, its grass. Nothing else. Grows tall and thick and I could easily imagine huge herds of buffalo grazing as far as the eye could see. It’s prolific and it’s everywhere. This time of the year it was beautiful and green and it was hypnotic to watch it wave in the prairie wind.
When we got to the Badlands and saw the bare soil and rock formations with the green grass as a background, it was breathtaking. We really loved going through the Badlands and we were glad it had been made a National Park. Hiking trails everywhere and we saw wildlife here and there.
We took lots of pictures and we sent you all a postcard from the badlands. It really is that amazing. Here are some of the pictures we took.
We stopped at an overlook
We didn’t walk out to this further overlook. We’re good at going down a hill but not so good at climbing back up. We went out to many others that were more on the level.
Very interesting formations and beautiful vista
The more adventurous could walk out on trails on top of the hogbacks
Herd of buffalo
Prairie dog mounds all around the big guy
Deep canyons
Pinnacles in the distance
Different colors in the soil layers
I loved this. Deep canyons all around with a green meadow in the center
The air was so clear out here we could see for 30 miles, as far as eagle’s nest butte.
Most of the drive so far was up on the plateau looking down into the canyons.
Then, the road took us down into the canyons looking up
Wildflowers competing with the prairie grass for sunshine
An interesting skyline view as well as the knifepoint ridges down the sides.
A little window.
The Badlands are made of soft soil with layers of rock. The formations are being eroded at the rate of 1 inch per year. It has taken 500,000 years to create these formations and in only another 500,000 years, they will be gone.
We very much enjoyed our day in the Badlands and are very happy we decided to take the rather extensive drive out to see them. It was well worth our time. Going back we got on the freeway and stopped in Wall (again) where we had something to eat then headed home. We were very tired at the end of that day.
No comments:
Post a Comment