Badlands, SD

We approached the Badlands from the Black Hills by way of SD 44. This route goes between the north and south portions of the Badlands. The south portion is governed in cooperation with the Rosebud Sioux tribe. We got to Ceder Pass campground, a USFS campground near the visitor's center. It had flush toilets and water and places for people to camp, though there were few trees. Each picnic table had a sun and wind shelter (the wind comes predominantly from the south). This first photo is the view from the campground.

That night there was a ranger's talk. Things have changed since I was a child when the ranger sat around a campfire and gave a talk. Now they have screens with reverse projection of power point presentations. The temporary summer ranger, from Tennessee where he teaches school, gave a really interesting presentation on the Homestead Act of 1862. Lincoln proposed the act in order to have more persons sympathetic to the north populate the Louisiana Purchase. He waited until part way through the Civil War to suggest the act. Interestingly, only people who had taken up arms against the north were prohibited from participating.

That meant that women, blacks and foreigners could try to earn their 160 acres by improving 5 acres by farming for 5 years. In the Badlands 95% of the people failed because the land gets so little rain. In the middle of the talk it began to thunder and lightning and so it was cut short as we all ran towards our tents and trailers in the downpour.

The next morning Bob and I got up early to hike to the Notch, 1.2 miles round trip, before it got too hot. Since dogs are not permitted on any trail in a national park, we had to leave Darwin in the car. The trail was amazing, up through the formations, up a 40' ladder, across ledges and to a notch looking out on the White River. There was no one on the trail except us. The second phot is of the hike up the Notch.

The Badlands were formed from the broken down debris washed out of the Black Hills over millions of years. Eventually the land was covered with a shallow sea and when that disappeared about 500,000 years ago the rivers began to erode the land into the present formations.
They lose about 2" every year. After hiking to the Notch, we visited the Visitor's Center and headed out on the 31 mile road to Wall, SD. It had wonderful overlooks and the colors were amazing.

When we finally reached Wall we did not visit Wall Drug, but headed east on I-90 for about 125 miles before we headed off on blue highways to Hamilton Lake State Park on the SD-Minnesota border. It had a disc golf course.