Badlands National Park delights

Saturday September 25 (I'm going to add photos and edits later, limited WIFI = limited time)

Haven’t showered for 3 days, starting to be less worried about picking the miniscule flying bugs off of me, and the howling coyotes or wolves didn’t even keep me up last night.  I didn’t know what day it was until I checked with my computers internal clock, and we’ve been waking up by the lit sky.  Our biggest worry of late was getting to one of the numerous overlooks before the sun set.  Sun, don’t drop so fast!  The rock formations here at Badlands National Park are breathtaking.  The color variation in the striations got more beautiful with the setting sun and the changing light reflection.  We’ve been here for two days now; it’s amazing how fast a place can feel like home when you’re on the road.  Yesterday we arrived in the afternoon, we set up camp and headed to the nearest information/nature center to get some maps.  The rangers that work at nature centers are so generous with their enthusiasm for their work and their park, it’s always inspiring and worthwhile to have a chat and get some advice on trails and park activities.  We did a few shorter hikes and saw a few overlooks, just whetting the appetite for the next days adventuring.  When I was much younger, my family went camping quite often in our huge army green house tent, and my parents always made sure that we took in whatever ranger led program was available.  Last night we walked a short jaunt over to the amphitheater where Ranger Larry and his cohorts did a presentation on the current night sky at Badlands.  It was an all around presentation that included much preventative info about the very common ground friend that happens to have fangs and be venomous.  Superstitious I am, and I’ve decided not to talk about this friend because my fears always get the best of me, and until now I’ve been lucky and not yet seen one underfoot...   We did see a plethora of amazing, beautiful, and resilient animals including big horn sheep, prong horned antelope, some sort of desert deer, falcon, villages of prairie dogs, special blue and yellow birds, and free, roaming, hulking, wise buffalo.  We saw them in their natural habitat, not 20 feet from the road, alone and in herds, these animals have ancient souls that are visible from a distance.  There is something so wise and old about the buffalo and they are such lumbering and heavy creatures, I can’t help but love them.  I may feel differently when one tries to charge me at the buffalo roundup on Monday, but today, I love them.   

Truly the rock formations here are something to behold, if it weren’t for other people, we would have thought we’d woken up on the moon.  There is something so stark and lovely, so quiet and clear about being out on a trail, hearing birds and wind in the prairie grass, looking at ancient sea beds eroding so that the vista is different all the time.  Purposeful pinnacles rising ethereally out of the ground, so little and so much biodiversity at the same time, you have to be still to hear and see it. 

The wildlife here only lets you in if you listen.  The world comes to life in the quiet.