Good Times in the Badlands

We woke up full of excitement - eager to explore and learn more about these Badlands... but just before breakfast, Isaac began to look a bit green. At just six years old, he has become very familiar with what to do when he feels sick, but not so great at being able to tell the difference between being hungry and being nauseous. Long story short, he spent the better part of the morning trying desperately to hold anything down. We threw all of our supplies in truck and mangaged to get to the Junior Ranger program with only one stop where Isaac had to jump out of the truck on the side of the road. He was a real trooper all morning while Abby attended the Junior Ranger program and took turns doing short hikes with either me or Matt. Finally, after sleeping it off while the rest of us ate lunch, he began bouncing back. Poor little guy has such a weak stomach, it probably won't be the last time we run that drill on this trip.

I enjoyed just sitting with him and taking in our surroundings - large formations with many layers of sediment in every shade of brown and grey that you can imagine. Some of them even had layers of reds, oranges and yellows running through them. They had been worn away over time to create what almost looked like sand castles made by dripping wet sand into large mounds. It was stark, almost appearing desolate - but then there were beautiful flowers clinging to the edges of the dry formations that looked like they were hanging on for dear life. It's amazing that they have everything they need to survive in that barren-looking soil. Something about the formations beckons you to come closer and take a look, and the flowers and various types of grasses draw you in. The kids also enjoyed climbing over and around them. Just when we thought they had climbed enough, they wanted to reach the top of another one.

We learned some about the thousands of of prehistoric animal fossils that have been found here, and imagined what life would have been like millions of years ago. Taking in the views of stark formations living in concert with lush, rolling praire land, we pondered the wonders of such an ecosystem. In early evening, we ventured down a gravel road to a less-explored area of the park to look for wildlife. Bison and prairie dogs and bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope, oh my! Abby had learned about prairie dogs during the Junior Ranger program, and we observed their habits up close in Roberts Prairie Dog town. We saw bison far off in the valley through our binoculars and right outside the truck window as they blocked the road. Amazing!!

Somewhere in there, we took a brief detour to Wall Drug in Wall, SD. We had seen signs for it for at least 200 miles and Isaac had been pouring over the brochures for it in the car. He had our trip planned out. It was mostly a large tourist trap famous for free ice water and nickel coffee, both of which we enjoyed. The kids had a great time checking everything out and waiting for the giant T-Rex to roar... If you are ever in the area, it's definitely an experience.
 
 

Tracy