Badlands
Our first visit
to the South Dakota Badlands brought us both familiar and unfamiliar
scenes. As expected, "bad" is in the eye of the beholder.
Light gray hills of adobe dirt and clay reminded us of western
Colorado. The big difference here is the presence of green grasses
in between the hills and peaks, and the bright yellow flowers along
most of the roads and around the hills. The contrast of colors is
awesome. Large pastures approaching the badlands, with cattle and horses complete the
picture.
As we often like
to do, we kept off of the major roads today, and explored the gravel
side roads and even one jeep trail within a 60 mile radius of our
site. It was a great day with fantastic views that we did not expect
of the badlands. The photos we took today were with the sun almost
directly overhead. We can't wait to go out again during early
morning and evening light.
We can certainly
understand why the early westward travelers would call this area the
"badlands".
It was easy for us to admire the scenery and be amazed at the landscapes when we were driving through in an air-conditioned vehicle.
Picking your way through such a place must have been intimidating to say the least while traveling by wagons and oxen.
Add to that the desert environment where even the water is alkali, and not drinkable for man nor beast, and you have a problem.
We took lots of
photos, and of course, expect to take many more before leaving this
picturesque place.
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