What a day! What a park! What landscape! It is so hard to take it all in.
Left the hotel about 8:15 and headed south through the rolling plains to Badlands National Park. Immediately turned right onto the gravel road and then stopped again almost immediately for photos. Needless to say we did that a lot today! Stopped at every opportunity to take pictures and simply to look.
Also stopped at the Prairie Dog Village, where we saw a number of the cute little critters. Adorable! One of them fell in love with Norbert and came right up to him.
We also saw a huge herd of buffalo (bison). They are BIG! Watched and photographed them for quite a while. Also saw a number of buffalo droppings – they are so large, they are hard to miss.....
We turned around and rode back to the Badlands Loop Road (me driving now) and made our way through the park. It is impossible to describe the landscape except to say that it is sort of like Bryce Canyon or the Grand Canyon, but not really. And it is not a canyon!
What makes the park so spectacular is the variety of landscapes and formations. Some cliffs and valleys, some mountains (the Wall), and in between – grassy plain! So unusual. And you drive right through it, which you certainly can't with the Grand Canyon.
To a certain extent, some parts of the park remind me of Egypt –the barrenness, the wasteland, very similar. Some of the formations look like ruins of temples. And in others I found myself searching for where the pharaohs' tombs would be hidden. This one, for example:
Just before noon we arrived at the Cedar Pass Lodge, where we lunched. We both had hot dogs with chili, and the chili was outstanding. A very nice gift shop, but didn't buy anything.
We then went to the park visitor's center and watched a beautiful film about the park. Lots of people at the center but only one other couple watching the film. Go figure.... We always watch such films. For one thing it is a chance to sit in a cooled place, but they are also almost always educational and interesting.
Then headed north for a few more photo stops and then out of the park to Cactus Flat, which is basically a gas station at the interstate exit. Bought a cup of coffe, some ice for the cooler, cookies and a photo book of the park.
Right next door was the Minuteman National Monument, which we went in, but there is actually nothing to see there.
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