09 & 10 July 2020

Badlands National Park is Jaw-Dropping: I'm just going to say up front that no pictures can do that place justice. You have to see it for yourself; it is Grand Canyon levels of simply incredible. 

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, my camera memory card seems to have formatted itself, deleting around 90% of the pictures I took there. There good news is that it looks like I am going to be able to use a recovery software to get them off my card, but I'll only find out if that works tomorrow morning. As a result of this, most of the pics in this post are from my phone.

Badlands Day 1, 09 July: We left Pierre and drove to the park. Although there where hints of interesting terrain along the way, it was mostly just prairie grass and farmlands for most of the way there. As we approached, I became slightly nervous. I had built up the hype in my head for so long that I felt I was bound to be disappointed. How, I wondered, could anything measure up to the views I had created in my head? 

Ya, I really did not have to worry about that issue...

Finally a background worthy of the Cougar!

    So, as you can tell, the Badlands are beautiful. But they are also incredibly accessible. You can drive your car right up to almost all the places I photographed above. There are multiple viewpoints off the main road, and they make it very easy to see most of the interesting parts of the park. But there are also ample hiking trails dispersed around the park, and unlike some parks, you are allowed to roam free off the trails wherever you please.

    We took advantage of some of the trails to do some trail running. We loaded up our backpacks with basic first aid kits, water, a JetBoil, and some instant oatmeal packets, and started running the trail. After we made it out a few miles, we stopped for lunch a little off the trail in the shade of one of the  mini-plateaus that are so numerous in the park. 

This is where we ate lunch.

    As we were running back to the Cougar, we almost ran right into these guys!

Badlands Bighorn Sheep (2 Males and 1 Female)

    And I'm not joking when I say we almost ran into them! When you're trail running in a place as majestic as Badlands, you actually have to concentrate pretty hard to avoid tripping on the very un-improved trails while also taking in the view. As a result, we got within about 25ft, which is WAY too close to very big sheep, before we even noticed they were there. After snapping these pictures, we slowly (at first), then very quickly put some distance between us and the big sheep, both of us thinking about the recent story of the woman who was gored by a buffalo in Yellowstone after getting too close to try to get a picture. 

    After we got back to the Cougar, we drove to the step-off point for the hike to where we wanted to camp, making several stops along the way to gawk at the scenery. Our plan was to camp in the Deer Haven area, but the only directions we could find on how to get there were hilariously vague. Here are the instructions we were trying to follow: "You will stay south of multiple buttes for about 2.5-3 miles. Approximately 3 miles into the hike, you will go around a butte and the landscape will open up to your north. You will see a large stand of juniper trees (you will not miss all the green amongst all the brown) set high up on the side of a hill; this is Deer Haven." (https://www.theoutbound.com/south-dakota/backpacking/backpack-to-deer-haven-in-badlands-np) 

    Those instructions are, in Badlands National Park, like telling someone in New York City to 'turn left at the really tall building, then look for the Starbucks and walk towards it, then go left at the hotdog stand.' So, did we make it to Deer Haven? Honestly, we still don't have a clue, but I can't imagine it was better than where we camped that night.

    These pictures were all taken at our campsite for the night. We hiked about 2-3 miles in, saw this place, and dropped our gear. Watching the sun set, seeing the Milky Way Galactic Core with your own eyes, and then waking up and seeing all that out of your tent was something everyone should experience at least once in their life. 

Badlands Day 2, 10 July: Getting out of Badlands was hard. I mean, there are paved roads the whole way and completely manageable and understandable traffic, so it is not physically hard. But mentally, how can you stop pulling over at every viewing area and just staring at the formations? After 2 or 3 (or maybe 4??) stops, we did finally manage to leave Badlands, but not before we took these final pics.

    Oh, and our view for lunch wasn't too bad either...

    Because we didn't want to follow the crowds all the way up the concrete path to the official viewing area, both out of COVID concerns and because ewwwww crowds, we decided to climb some rocks, a behavior that had been well rewarded in Badlands and continued to serve us well at Mt. Rushmore. Not a soul came within 100ft of us while we ate burgers we had picked up in the town right below Mt. Rushmore. As a side note, that town is super creepy. I can't explain why, but both Jimmy and I got the weirdest, creepiest vibe from the place. It almost appeared to be one of those tourist-trap places in a low-budget horror film where everyone is way too nice on the surface, but the town leaders are all in some crazy cult by night; some real X-Files stuff. I can't explain it, but in no way did either one of us want to overstay our welcome.

    The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful except for this beauty!

    $2.24 for premium is the best I've ever seen, so cheers to South Dakota for that one!

    We rolled in to Bozeman, MT, at around 10:50pm, a little later than planned, mostly due to the extra time we spent in Badlands. Of course, we got to see another epic sunset along the drive.

    The sky really is prettier out here.

    We leave for Yellowstone tomorrow morning!

    Thanks for following along!

    Ken