Everyone was in very high spirits this morning as we packed up and hit the dump station. We all were excited to get personal with The Badlands. We stopped at the visitor center to hear the recommendations and understand the rules. “You’re free to climb on anything you want; you’re welcome to roam the park; you don’t have to stay on the trails. You’re also free to fall off anything you want.” Warning noted.
JT asked the ranger the only question I had in mind as well “Why do they call it The Badlands?” The answer is as you might guess: because it’s hot, dry, very difficult to travel through on foot, and there’s no potable ground water – it’s full of silt.
We headed out to a parking area with some nearby trails. Our phones were reporting temperatures in the low 80’s, but we’re sure it is at least 10 degrees hotter on the formations, based on what we experienced as soon as we left later in the day. The formations are incredible: mixtures of rock and dried mud. On the surface, it’s powdery and brittle, but beyond that first eigth of an inch, it’s all so tightly packed, it’s as hard as solid rock. So what you’ve got is a suraface of marbles and pebbles on top of rock. It’s obviously aptly named, and trying to get anywhere is quite treaturous. But if you’re not really trying to get anywhere, and you’re just climbing around and exploring, it’s actually rather exillerating! In fact, I think we were all a little bit giddy about it, and happy to be allowed to literally go anywhere we wanted. Why do they allow this? I’m sure it’s because 5 minutes’ rain probably changes the landscape more than decade’s worth of human climbing. You can so clearly see how the water erodes the peaks and brings all the silt together into cement-hard collection areas at the bottom.
Although we had 7 hours to walk trails and do whatever we wanted, we’d had a “sufficiency of plentitude” by noon, and we were starting to bake in the sun, too. We returned to the RV, started the engine AND generator to get as much air conditioning as possible, and had a nice lunch. While eating, I contemplated the map and adjusted the route to something more scenic.
When reading maps, it’s a good idea to understand the legend. I have now learned that a double grey line road means it’s a dirt road. You don’t generally expect to see dirt roads on State-wide maps, but sometimes, major roads out here are dirt! As soon as we bumped off the pavement onto the dirt, I’d regretted my decision, but that would soon change.
There’s a “scenic loop” road inside The Badlands. I chose to follow the part of it that went West, then cut across a connecting road before it turned North, so as to pick up the scenic road around on the outside of the park that continued West like I wanted, to get to Rushmore.
Not far from the parking lot, we turned a corner and found an enormous bighorn sheep eating grass right next to the road. He was unimpressed by the attention, and cared not that all automobile movement was at a stand still until he finished eating. Now it had been an absolute dream of mine to see one on this trip, but I felt like the chances were low. So we stopped and gawked without shame, until being bustled along by a park ranger. as I sure glad I’d adjusted our route!
I began to have my doubts thereafter, though. We battled some stiff winds on the open grassy plains once we left the crazy geology area of the park. We didn’t stop to take pictures of prairie dogs; they were now a common enough site. The connecting road looked promising at first, winding through some beautiful lowland areas with spots where the undrinkable water was collecting, past some picnic areas near some cool looking formations, but it suddenly turned into a cow-grate protected arrow-straight dirt road with plenty of potholes. (A cow grate is rows of metal bars that you cross like railroad tracks. Unlike railroad tracks, though, they are much thinner where your tire touches them, they are only a few inches apart, and they are in groups of 20 or 30 rails instead of just 2. This will be across the entire road, and it creates a barrier about 4 feet wide that cows won’t cross. The spaces between the rails is too big for their feet; they’ll fall through. The rails themselves are too small for their feet; they aren’t nearly coordinated enough to balance on the rails. So they are trapped, without a fence, yet cars, whose tires don’t fall through the small spaces, can cross easily. That means we’re now inside someone’s cattle pasture. Well, at least we might see some nice cows.
We saw cows alright. We had to wait for them to get across the road, at times. And where do they get these cows? They’re enormous! Are the mothers protective of their babies? Because it’s ALL mother/calf pairs! Oh, but was that one a bull lying there? Geez. But that was fun.
Antelope are plentiful enough to pretty much ignore as well. However, something about that last one we passed made me stop and looked again. Sure enough – I even had to back up: “look, they’re fighting!” It was two males, antlers entangled, grappling back and forth. We were down-wind, and these two were SERIOUS with each other. We watched and took pictures until we were bored, and they were still going back and forth – first one, then the other, looking like they were going to win the fight. I knew we’d see wildlife, but to see wildlife in action like this, well… I was just beside myself. The rest of that road had no potholes in it, I don’t think. Or if it did, I didn’t notice/care. What a perfect detour. I’m glad I didn’t know that double grey lines meant dirt road.
Well, we crossed some more beautiful country (of course) and checked in at our campground at Rushmore, which had no cell service, no water, and no electrical hookups. We fired up the generator (like other visitors) and made dinner. Then we drove over to Rushmore itself to take a picture at sunset and see the light show. The show was NOT what I expected. I thought it would be lasers and music, etc. Instead, they shined a light on the faces so you could see it at night, and they did a little talk at the amphitheater to acknowledge veterans – which was very cool, yes, but not what I expected, that’s all.
The boys and Cheryl were quite impressed by Rushmore, though, and again appreciative that we visited. So it was perfect.
