6/9/07 – Badlands N.P., SD

The rising sun beating down on our tent woke us up around 7 am. Having driven into and set up our campsite in the dark last night we realized we had little clue about what our surroundings looked like. However, we both recalled hearing many strange animal noises throughout the night. Jonah was the first out of the tent and he pointed out one of the most surprising sights of the trip thus far. No more than 150 feet from our tent was a herd of 40 to 50 bison. These massive creatures were peacefully grazing and paid little attention to us or any of the other campers in the area. Amidst the herd was a community of ground dwelling prairie dogs. As the prairie dogs popped their heads in and out of their homes in the ground, and with the bison roaming above them, I was reminded of the popular carnival game “Whack-a-mole”. After taking time to acclimate ourselves with our awesome surroundings, we jumped in the car and set out for the Badlands N.P. Visitor Center. Our drive to the Visitor Center was a 40 mile trip through the bison herd, past the prairie dog town and back through the awesome buttes and valleys that we had struggle to see as the sun was setting the night before.

At the Visitor Center we watched a 20 minute video on the history, geology, and animal life of the park. After the video, we set out on several hikes through the rough terrain that defines the eastern portion of the park. Our first hike, one of the two “strenuous” trails in the park, was on Notch Trail. The trail entailed a rattlesnake warning sign, a steep climb up a rope ladder and an incredible view from a point appropriately called “The Notch”. After the hike we stopped for lunch, at which point we decided to do some free climbing off the trails. We started by climbing up any peak we could find and then moved on to trying to find a path from the peaks down to the valley below. These excursions gave us some of the most incredible views of the park and allowed us to test out our hiking skills and test our fear (or fearlessness) of heights. Feeling exhausted from the heat and the hiking we returned to the air conditioned Visitor Center where we napped through two more showings of the park video.

Feeling refreshed and hungry, we headed into the local town of Interior, SD to find something edible for dinner. The town, with a population of 63, had a post office, food mart, two bars and little else. Walking into the food mart we noticed a sign advertising for karaoke at one of the two local bars, and go figure it was for tonight! After buying supplies for quesadilla’s we inquired at the register about the sign on the door. The woman checking us out laughed and told us it would be a good time. However, the large burly man standing next to her had more to say. He informed us that there would be lots of girls at karaoke, however, he warned us to keep close tabs on our wallets. We laughed, grabbed our food and headed for the door. On our way out the man gave us one last piece of advice. “Oh yeah, and keep an eye out for the girls with adam’s apple’s”. We did not attend karaoke that night.

Upon returning to the campsite we fired up the grill for the first time and cooked ourselves some delicious turkey quesadilla’s. After dinner we decided to play catch around the campsite, Jonah with his baseball glove and me with my lacrosse stick. Within 15 minutes we had turned the campsite into a session of Badlands Sports. Two other campers joined us for catch, two others began tossing a Frisbee, and several people took their dogs off their leashes and began playing catch with them. As the session went on, even a few bison strolled by the site to utilize their favorite scratching post (coincidentally also the sign for our campsite). As the sun went down over the rolling prairie hills that define the western part of the park, all the campers retired to their individual campsites. Having spent the first half of the day hiking awesome terrain, and the second half relaxing and playing sports I felt completely satisfied. After a game of cards I was exhausted and ready for bed.

- Alex