Badlands National Park
Richard Rathe, October 2018 (Nature, Photography)
My brother-in-law Rick flew out from Colorado so we could go on a road trip together across South Dakota and beyond. We entered the Park via the Northeast Entrance (extreme right on map) and spent most of our day slowly moving west, stopping frequently—sometimes to take photos, sometimes due to bison migrating across the road. We ended up at the Sage Creek primitive camping area (upper left).
Photos
This trip was a great opportunity to try out Panoramic, HDR, and Monochrome photography.
The juniper trees were heavy with their blue berries.
The sheer number of abstract forms was a delight!
Camping
As you can see these appear to be bachelor bison hanging out together. There are herds of bison in the park but they were elsewhere.
The Sage Creek Camping Area is basically a large cul-de-sac with tables, small wind/sun shelters, and a pit toilet—nestled in a valley surrounded by low, grassy hills. As the sun set the wind died down and we could hear competitive choruses of coyotes howling from either side.
The next day we met one of our few neighbors who happened to be from France. Rick is fluent in French and struck up a friendly conversation. I mostly nodded and smiled a lot. 😉
We exited the Park to the west and south to the near ghost town of Scenic
SD.
Gallery
(click any image to view or advance)
