Even though we were on somewhat of a schedule traveling from Washington to Michigan, we did allow ourselves enough time for a couple of unplanned side trips along the way. One that came up while we were in South Dakota was a brief stop at the Badlands National Park. I've never seen anything like this, and my first impression was this seemed like a landscape that belonged on another planet, or perhaps the setting for a movie like "The Lord of The Rings". Since that movie has already been made, maybe for an adaptation of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. It is stark, desolate, eerie, and other-worldly.
The park consists of nearly 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires, and is really impossible to describe. The history of the Badlands stretches back to the beginning of time, and the land is rich with fossil beds dating 23 to 35 million years old. The evolution of mammal species such as the horse, sheep, rhinoceros and pig can be studied in the Badlands formations. An array of extinct animals, ranging from very enormous to very small, once ranged through the area now included in Badlands National Park. Some lived in the subtropical forests that flourished after the retreat of the shallow inland seas, while others inhabited the savannahs and grasslands that came in the years afterward.
Hopefully you can get at least a glimpse into this place like no other with the attached pictures. Remember - click on them to enlarge for the full effect.
1 comment:
you need to reschedule your next visit here to august - when the temperatures are a little higher and the harleys in abundance.
it is an amazing view isn't it. something you can't quite comprehend until you see it.
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