Badlands (By Andrew)

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The Badlands have been (so far) my favorite part of our days and nights in camp. The scenery is truly desolate, but in a way that reflects “organized chaos” rather than man-made destruction that creates similar landscapes. The weather as we arrived was near perfect, with temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s all night and never getting hotter than the mid 80’s the next day. The night sky at Badlands is one of the purest and most un-polluted I have personally ever seen, and we enjoyed it with cigars and some George Dickel on the rocks. The campground was very busy though so quiet that in our tent you would thing we were the only ones there. We woke up more or less with the light and enjoyed some pancakes before setting off on one of the best short hikes I have ever taken. It was a pain-free process for a great reward. Usually it seems that in order to find scenery worth seeing you have to hike 20 miles into Gambowamba National Death March Memorial Hiker’s Cemetery Forest and Cannibal Reservation. And uphill both ways of course. Not so in Badlands. We walked about a mile through flat terrain on the bottom of a canyon. It was very dry and rocky (I suppose a lot of canyons are) though small rodents and birds were all over the place. I think if I had been the first person to enter this canyon I would have become very lost, as there are no shortage of options of directions to take (Alec led us down some of the “off-trail passages to great vistas), but these days there are very clear signs as to wear they want you to go. After a short climb up a rope ladder/stair way (very amusing to watch others attempt) and a few hundred more feet of walking we found our selves looking out over a truly awesome vista. Pictures do a much better job of describing the view, so I won’t even try. All I can say is that it is one of those places that you feel you don’t want to ever leave. I think in the future I would like to take a Badland’s only trip and explore it further. To me, the Badlands IS the American West. This will probably seem sort of goofy but I decided that the song which best accompanied my feelings while at Badlands was “One in the Same” by My Morning Jacket. You can listen to it here-

I feel it has a good “lonesome cowboy” feel to it. Enjoy the pictures and look for more posts by your truly soon.

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Comments

[Dan McQ]

No pics right yet
I posted this entry from my computer and the pics are on Alec's, so chill out you will see them soon enough.