Badlands.
Another place that I didn't know I wanted to go until I got there, and another place for which this blog post is not going to do justice.
Sometime during our Black Hills tour we decided that we didn't want to go to North Dakota on this leg of the road trip, but we weren't sure where we were going to go instead (don't worry, Kati! We'll be through on our way back from Minnesota!). I vaguely remembered John mentioning the badlands, so we looked at it on the map and headed that way.
Badlands has two campgrounds -- one that is cheap and one that is free. As far as we could discern from reading on the two there wasn't much difference, so we planned on staying at the free campground. Our national parks book said that the park is obscure enough that the campgrounds never fill up, so we weren't worried about getting a camping spot. What we didn't know was that a flash flood had washed out the road to the campground where we had planned on staying, pushing everyone to the other campground, which was completely full by the time we arrived. Badlands is really isolated, with about 60 miles to the next major city. We ended up paying an arm and a leg to the a campground that was slightly reminiscent of an 80's horror movie to park in a mud hole for the first night of our stay. I wish that I had a picture to show you, but in the moment and in my frustration, posting a picture of it's creepiness was the furthest thing from my mind.
The next morning was the earliest morning we have had on the road trip so far. We didn't want to spend another night at the creepy campground, so we headed back to the park bright and early to get a camping spot and start the exploring.
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| The Pinnacles outlook |
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| Mountain goats on the Pinnacles |
Background info -- the Badlands was an ancient sea that left an incredibly unique and fossil rich land formation as it dried up. Native Americans described the area as being "bad lands to pass" and the description gave way to the name of the national park. Wall, South Dakota, about 19 miles north of the park, got it's name because it's location is on the "wall" of the badlands.
This park is another whose size is very manageable (those parks are usually among my favorites!) and we were able to see every viewpoint, complete the Junior Ranger program, attend several ranger talks, and see the visitors center and paleontology lab in two days.
The park also has nightly programs with rotating themes. The night that we attended we learned about the area's Native American history. The badlands are also void of light pollution, making an excellent location for night sky viewing. After the evening ranger talk a volunteer gave a small lecture on constellations and gave everyone a chance to look at Venus and Saturn through high powered telescopes.
At the overlook where we took this picture we met a mother and daughter who were on an annual visit to the area. The daughter had recently retired from teaching grade school in the San Juan School District in Sacramento, where we know both teachers and students. After lots of discussion on who knew whom and what a small world it is, she gave me some great suggestions for reading material for G and P, proving once again that one of the best things about nomad lifestyle is the people that we meet.
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| Bighorn sheep! John commented often on how we would see signs for them but we never saw them. We finally saw them here. |
We hadn't originally planned on hiking in Badlands. Mostly because the rattlesnake population far exceeds my comfort level, but John talked me into a short hike on day 2. The kids really enjoyed the open and unique terrain and the fossil hunting (though they came up empty). I didn't enjoy it quite as much as they did, but it was an interesting hike.
Badlands has an open hike policy, so while there are a few established trails visitors can hike anywhere, which we have learned is not usually the case in national parks.
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| The trail head for Castle Trail. Not the hiking landscape you normally think of. |
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| The little girls were such good hiking sports. |
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| Halfway through the hike. |
For me, the most impressive thing about Badlands was that we encountered the most knowledgeable rangers to date. When we got the kids Jr. Ranger books we met Ranger Jeff, a biologist who talked to them for about twenty minutes about the rattlesnake on display in the visitors center. He possessed tons of knowledge on snakes and graciously answered all of their questions. Later we attended a fossil talk that he gave and his insight was incredible and, again, his willingness to answer questions kept him chatting with our kids after everyone else had gone about their day.
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| Listening to Ranger Jeff at the fossil talk |
Another unique thing about Badlands is that they have a paleontology lab that you can visit throughout the day. There you can watch paleontologists working in real time and we found them equal as willing as Ranger Jeff to answer questions. I didn't take any pictures because I was so caught up in the conversation.
The next cool thing about Badlands -- it's 20 minutes from the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. Minuteman is one of the newest sites on the national registry, so it's still pretty obscure and the visitors center is still a work in progress. It's absolutely unique, though, and worth a visit. The displays go through the history of nuclear warfare (with lots of great info on the Manhattan Project), the development of nuclear weapons here and abroad, and most extensively, the maintenance of the Minuteman Missiles. If you arrive super early you can book a tour of the preserved underground control room. By early, though, I mean before the rangers arrive. The day we visited they told us that people had started lining up for the tour at 6:30 a.m.
At a site a few miles away you can see this now disarmed missile still in it's original chamber.
Taking in all of the information on nuclear warfare definitely gives a different perspective of what is going on behind the scenes of world politics while the rest of us are going about our everyday lives. Of particular interest to me was a lengthy list of nuclear mishaps, one near Beale Air Force Base, CA, near where we lived for several years.
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| The bigs picked up another Junior Ranger badge at Minuteman |
Another national park and a national historic site checked off the list!
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