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Published: March 22nd 2012
Badlands Wall
View of the peaks of the Badlands Wall, from the visitors' centerRed Cloud Native American Art Show
This morning was another day on the Pine Ridge Reservation, at the
Red Cloud Heritage Center.
After chief
Red Cloud bowed to the inevitable in 1868, he tried to arrange things for the Oglala as best he could.
One thing he believed was that children would need education.
So did the US government, but for a very different purpose.
US government education meant assimilating Native Americans into existing culture.
Red Cloud’s version meant teaching people how to live in this new society while still retaining and respecting their heritage.
He invited the Jesuits, who he trusted, to set up a school on the reservation.
That school is now the Red Cloud Center.
It contains a revealing museum of Oglala life.
The museum was given over to one of its signature events, the
Native American art show.
Native Americans from all over the United States, not just Oglala are invited to participate.
The work ranged all over the place.
Some was realistic depictions of Native American themes.
Some explored aspects of spirituality.
One sculptor created a human form that appears to be emerging from
Red Cloud School
Red Cloud School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, site of the Native American art show a tree root.
Some created highly political work, such as drawings of a buffalo hunt over a copy of the Constitution (Native Americans were denied US citizenship until the 1920s).
Some of the work was surprisingly affordable; I ended up buying a small abstract collage that represents a ceremony for rain.
Badlands National Park
Heading north afterward, the scenery first looked like the rest of the reservation.
Slowly, that changed.
Eroded hills appeared.
Not just any hills, ones with deep gullies and sharp narrow canyons.
This landscape was hostile and weird, a desert where nothing grew.
It is the badlands, a world of soft rock that erodes with every rainstorm.
Soon enough, the highway was surrounded by them.
The most dramatic parts of this landscape are protected as
Badlands National Park.
For many visitors, the best parts of the park are concentrated in one area called Cedar Pass.
The park headquarters is here, which has a museum on the
landscape.
Most of the rock is fine sandstone and clay.
Much of it eroded from the Black Hills further west.
The
Impact Basin
Impact Basin in the Badlands. Note the huge amount of vegitation compared to the rest of the area. stone contains an amazing array of
fossils, including dinosaurs.
More notable dinosaurs are discovered in this region than anywhere else (including the infamous T-Rex Sue, see
Dinosaurs, science, and greed).
After the headquarters, the main road climbs to the pass.
Either side presents ever changing views of the special landscape.
Front and center is the Badlands Wall.
The wall is a long row of peaks.
Below them on one side is low prairie, and below them on the other is much higher prairie.
Erosion of this higher prairie created the entire area.
The first major hiking opportunity falls halfway up the wall.
It’s called the impact basin trail.
Thousands of years ago, a huge block of rock fell off a surrounding peak and crashed onto a shelf.
The impact compacted the soil enough that it retains water.
The basin is an oasis in the surrounding desert.
The train weaves through the basin and the surrounding hills.
What struck me first on this trail was the
erosion.
The peaks on either side of the basin have deeply cut gullies in
Badlands Convertible
My car in a Cedar Pass viewpoint, halfway up the Badlands Wall them, created by rainstorms.
The soil here erodes very quickly.
Halfway along the trail is a geologic survey marker on a block on concrete.
When it was placed fifty years ago, the concrete was entirely within the soil.
Now, the top sticks out by over a foot.
The next thing I noticed was the vegetation.
The basin was like the classic western environment, with lots of pine trees and some wildflowers.
Surrounding it was grass and empty rocks.
The last thing I noticed, of course, was the view.
It stretched for miles, with pyramid shaped peaks in a long line.
Cedar Pass Trails
For a concentrated blast of the badlands, nothing beats the collection of
short trails just north of Cedar Pass itself.
For starters, they all leave from the same parking lot.
Just beyond the parking lot is a short wall of peaks.
Beyond that, initially out of view, is a maze of canyons, some of them huge.
The trails give different views of this landscape.
The first trail is a short paved path.
It passes a number
Through the door
The canyons on the other side of The Door, at the end of the Door Trail. of hills and then ends at an overlook in the wall.
The view is a huge canyon with steep walls.
The second trail falls between a row of small peaks and the upper prairie.
The view looks rather dull.
Suddenly, it passes though a gap in the peaks providing a view of a maze of small canyons in a plateau.
The change is simply amazing.
It’s possible to weave between the canyons giving ever changing views.
Seasoned hikers love the third trail, which goes through classic badlands landscapes.
Be sure to read the rattlesnake warning at the entrance and watch steps accordingly.
The trail starts by dropping from the parking lot into a gully.
The gully has more moisture than most places around here, so it features grass and the occasional pine tree.
The trail follows the gully upstream.
The walls grow higher and higher and closer together, ultimately forming a canyon.
Now things get nasty.
The trail turns away from the streambed and climbs directly up the canyon wall on a cable ladder.
The climb is sandy and
Lower notch canyon
Lower secton of the canyon traversed by the Notch Trail. Note the vegitation compared with the Door area very steep.
One needs sure feet and steady balance to get to the top.
Turn back if this causes anxiety, because it gets much worse.
The ladder ends on a promontory above the canyon.
From this sandy ledge, the canyon is visible in all its glory, along with steep side gullies and neighboring spires.
From that perch, the trail follows a ledge halfway up the canyon wall.
The ledge is narrow.
Thanks to the sandstone, the ledge is slippery.
Needless to say, it’s also a rather long way down.
I walked this part very carefully, testing footing at every step.
In places, it crossed side gullies, which required rock scrambling.
In others, it crossed slanted rock outcroppings, where the possibility of a fall was very real.
Eventually, the reason for this tricky path appeared.
The streambed below reached a dry waterfall, and the trail was once again on the canyon floor.
The canyon at this point was shaped like a letter U.
Spires of eroded rock rose on all sides.
The trail followed the main canyon as it
Upper notch canyon
The upper portion of the canyon traversed by the Notch Trail. The trail runs along the sandy shelf on the right side of the canyon. started to split.
Eventually, it took a sharp right fork up a rise.
Soon afterward it ended, at an opening in the main wall directly over the impact basin from earlier.
The view was stupendous.
At this point, the reason it’s called the Notch Trail should be obvious.
Afterward, I had a hike every bit as cautious as the way in to get back to my car.
Badlands Scenic Highway
After the trails, I drove the
scenic highway.
It starts at Cedar Pass and weaves in and out of the main wall, with overlooks all over the place.
All of them showed the eroded landscape, in an infinite number of variations.
The highway ends at an area called the Pinnacles, because it is filled with dozens of narrow spires.
My one complaint is that most of the overlooks were panoramic looks from the upper section of the wall.
I found much better details of the gullies from overlooks below and in the wall, such as the road junction near the end.
Driving through the park after dark (and dinner) gave one last,
Twilight
Twilight driving through the badlands and every different, experience.
Now, the peaks and gullies were illuminated by my headlights.
Since the soil is mostly white, they reflected the light well, making the landscape features appear like ghosts along the side of the road.
I can only imagine what a hike under a full moon must feel like out here.
I spent the night at the
campground in Badlands National Park.
It is located on the lower grass lands, with the spires clearly visible in the distance.
I lived out a fantasy tonight.
In the settler days, people did not have tents.
They had a bedroll, and threw it down wherever looked good for the night.
I wanted to replicate that experience of sleeping under the stars.
Doing it safely requires the convergence of multiple factors, since tents keep out animals as well as rain.
Tonight was dry as a bone near a new moon, and Badlands National Park has nothing that bothers humans (other than mosquitoes), so I slept on the ground.
Like last night, I wanted to stay up all night and
stargaze , directly from my bed!
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