Those Bad, Bad Badlands

Sunday, September 2nd, 2012

After stopping on the Missouri River for lunch, we continued on to Badlands National Park. It completely eclipsed the Missouri lunch. The formations were so different from anything I had ever seen! 

All the pictures I had seen of the Badlands were at the base of the mountains (hills?) looking up or across. I had never seen how you can look DOWN at these hills, or the portions of the canyon where there's a maze of eroding ridges. If one had time (and non-squeamish parents), one could follow those out for miles, winding back and forth and jumping cracks in the earth. 

Because of the angle of the sun, the shadows (or lack thereof) were confusing. Distance was tricky to determine as well. I would walk along, but things beside me didn't seem to move, or I'd be past them sooner than I expected. It's very hard to describe that sensation--let's just say that until I got used to it, I didn't walk close to the edges!

My mother was wonderful. She let me climb all over everything without scolding me too much.

It was lovely. I'm going back there someday!

~Kiwi~