FINALLY, a chance to share with you our experience in the Badlands. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this part of our grand country, the Badlands are located in the SouthWest quadrant of South Dakota, surrounded by the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and the Pine Ridge (Lakota) Reservation. This stop was one of the primary objectives of this particular adventure and it revealed itself to be much more than any of us would have expected.
Thanks to our membership with Recreation USA (and its proprieters, our friends Dick and Judie Riblett), we were very pleased to spend 3 days and nights at the Badlands Ranch & Resort which is located near the town of Interior, SD, just to the South and East of the National Park. This tract of 1000 acres is owned and operated by Jake Sharp, quite a character and the friendly host of our stay. One of the pleasures we enjoyed was a late evening hike to the North end of Jake's property where high on a hill overlooking the White River, we had a spectacular view of a large portion of the formations of the Badlands which we observed as the sun set, providing an ever-changing vista of light, dark and colors across the formations and the valley below.
We spent our days here exploring the park as well as taking some side trips to Wall Drug (a famous tourist destination in these parts), and a Minute Man Missle Site (no longer active, dating back to the 60's), but greatest of these was the time spent driving and hiking the park.
Next stop...Rapid City, SD, and all the sites that surround it in the extreme West and SouthWest of South Dakota.
The following list of photo galleries will lead you share what we saw, as much as we were able to photograph. There is just no way to describe it so most of the scenic photos are without caption, but some other shots will contain some comments (upper left of the photo) about our locations, etc. Deb hopes you enjoy her excellend Buffalo sequence. We spotted this guy just as a dark dot in our view, then kept our eyes on him as he made his way to right in front of our car.
SD to the Badlands (15 Photos)
The Badlands Day One (30 Photos)
Badlands National Park (52 Photos)
Badlands Continued (59 Photos)
All of the Above (If you have lots of time)
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