Badlands South Dakota

If you Google "Badlands" you will find that there are badlands in a lot of different places because the term badlands refers to a dry terrain with soft sedimentary rock. For instance, there is a badlands section of Death Valley, California. These images were taken at Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The image above is a sunset shot.

I don't remember the exact location of this image but I do remember the climb to get it. It was VERY steep and once to the top it took a few minutes to get used to it and convince myself I was not going to tumble down. You can see here the cracked sedimentary soil and the layers of sediment deposited over the years.

Sunrise at the Doors. A person can walk into the landscape in this park but it would be very easy to get lost. On one morning we saw a group that apparently had spent the night. They were down in a lower area of the park and could be seen from the rim next to the road. They spent a considerable time finding a way out of the canyon, trying first this way then another. They made it out but it was impressive how difficult it was to find a way that would not dead end with an impassable section.

If you would like to see more images of the badlands you might want to see my previous blog post on July 4.

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