Badlands National Park

 

 

Badlands National Park

Facebook photos.

This is my third visit to Badlands National Park and I never tire of its rugged beauty. The name "Badlands" is right for this unforgiving landscape, so named by the Oglala Lakota in their language  and called "les mauvaises terres" by French explorers.

A visitor takes advantage of a photo op

The rocks are white in one large section of the park

We entered the park near Wall and stopped at a few scenic viewpoints along the way. Some of the lava-like formations look like sets from a science fiction movie, except for a few desert flowers blooming brightly and grass peeking through cracks in the rock. Prairie dogs played in the dirt and seemed to be showing off for tourists.

Visitors stopping at overlooks asked whether they should walk to the vantage point in the scorching heat. Bob told an older couple they could get a good view more easily down the road. Not really true, as that particular spot offered a panoramic 360-degree view  of the land.

We saw five or six vehicles parked just off the road, and a few people were looking into the distance with binoculars and shooting with long lens cameras. There was no safe place for the Corvette to stop, but I though I got a glimpse of something: buffalo, perhaps? There is a herd of about 800 in the park and I'd been hoping to see some of them. No luck this time

The unremitting sun got the better of me and Bob walked over to see an ancient fossil by himself. I continued to take photos of the white rocks in the distance as I sat in the air conditioned car. Some day I hope to return here in the winter, when the snow changes the appearance of this harsh land and bitter cold winds sweep across the plains.