It's easy to romanticize the Badlands. The narrow canyons beckon travelers to explore the echoes of solitude. Fifteen years ago, looking into the wrinkled surface of the earth from a tourist platform, I fantasized about hiking and camping there, but I didn't have the knowhow, the gear, or the fitness. So now that I have all those things, this was a place I wanted to revisit during the coronasummer, on my way to Wyoming with my friend Dan. When I told my dad about my plan to explore the area more, he bought me David McCullough's book Mornings on Horseback, an origin story of Teddy Roosevelt, culminating with the time he spent in the Badlands grieving the deaths of his wife and mother, and further developing a Hemingway-esque code that catapulted him to becoming the youngest
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