The Badlands

Thursday morning we were all really excited to head off to the Badlands. We had read a lot about it, but nothing prepared us for what was in store. When we entered the park we traveled through the national grassland (home to herds of bison, prairie dogs, antelope and other prairie creatures). After following a winding road through the grassland we began approaching enormous valleys, craggy mountains and rocky landscapes that looked reminiscent of the surface of the moon. We saw occasional bursts of green, but the landscape was largely red striped peaks, yellow and black mounds, and prairie grass. The views were spectacular and we stopped many times along the 25 mile drive to the Cedar Pass Lodge to take pictures and go on short hikes.

The Badlands was established as a national monument in 1939, but it didn't achieve national park status until 1978. It covers 244,000 acres and is the largest expanse of protected prairie ecosystem in the US. The Badlands is a fascinating combination of deep canyons, towering spires, incredible wildlife and flat-topped mesas. The weeks prior to our arrival had been particularly rainy, so the park was still very green which was unusual for this time of year

The Bad Lands are known for having some of the richest fossil deposits in North America. About 75 million years ago a shallow sea covered the Great Plains. Today, the bottom of that sea appears as a grayish-black sedimentary rock called Pierre ("peer"). Pierre is a rich source of fossils since creatures sank to the bottom of the sea when they died and over time became fossils. We attended a very good nature talk/walk with Ranger Rick about the fossils. He made the whole activity a variation on the show CSI and got the kids all excited looking for clues. He called it PSI (Pierre Scene Investigation). Colin, Alex and Steve all found new fossils during the walk (leg bones and teeth from ancient herbivores). We also saw snail fossils and partial skeletons of an ancient pig and ancient horse. The boys scampered on various rock formations, and we took a short hike among the peaks.

After the fossil talk and walk we headed to the Cedar Lodge for lunch. Steve and Ellen both had Souix buffalo tacos for lunch (delicious!). We shopped around in the adjacent gift shop and toured the campground we were going to stay in that night to pick out a spot. The campground is a short walk from the outdoor amphitheatre, gift shop and Cedar Lodge. It is one of the most gorgeous places we have ever seen. It is located at the bottom of a valley covered with prairie and is surrounded on three sides by glorious striped towering rock formations. We picked a spot and went off in search of a bag of ice. The Badlands mimics a desert ecosystem so the days are very hot and dusty, but the nights are cool. But, there was a gorgeous breeze during our time there so the heat really didn't trouble us. We were all really thirsty the whole time were were there, though, and it seemed like we could never get enough water. We drove 2 miles down the road to a tiny Lakota town called Interior (population: 67) to purchase our ice. On our way, we saw a mother bison with her calf by the side of the dirt road. Still kicking myself that we didn't get a photo of them. We did see lots of other wildlife, though, including prairie dogs, big horn sheep, a rattle snake, a rabbit, antelope, golden eagles, beautiful yellow songbirds and mule deer.

The Lakota, who originally inhabited the area, called the place mako sica. Early French trappers called the area les mauvaises terres a traverser. Both mean "bad lands." Conservation writer Freeman Tilden described the area as "peaks and valleys of delicately banded colors --colors that shift in the sunshine, ...and a thousand tints that color charts do not show. In the early morning and evening when shadows are cast upon the infinite peaks or on a bright moonlit night when the whole region seems a part of another world, the Badlands will be an experience not easily forgotten." Paleontologist T. Culbertson had another reaction: "Fancy yourself on the hottest day in summer in the hottest spot of such a place without water --without animal and scarce an insedt astir --without a single flower to speak pleasant things to you and you will have some idea of the utter loneliness of the Bad Lands."

Given the extreme heat of the late afternoon, we decided to set up camp and take it easy. We pitched the tent and used the charcoal grill to cook a delicious supper. After we ate, we walked over to the amphitheatre to hear a talk about prairie life. We learned a lot about prairies. There is only 2% of prairie left in North America. The park is trying to reintroduce endangered species like big horn sheep, the black footed ferret, and bison. One terrible byproduct of the white homesteaders was the near extinction of the bison. Fortunately, there are a few herds in the Bad Lands today, but they compete with the local cattle for grazing land and are still on the endangered species

Camping was spectacular that night. We set up the tent and left the roof off so that we could look up at the beautiful night sky. There was a full moon and it shone so bright that it seemed as though we had a really bright night light. We woke up early as the sun was rising. We packed up camp and decided to do an early morning hike before we hit the road. We found an area with an interesting trail and peaks to explore. Alex scampered all the way to the top of one of the peaks, and both boys enjoyed climbing and posing on some of the large rock formations. By 9 am it was starting to get really hot so we decided to hit the road and head north toward Yellowstone.