Day 4: Badlands Nat’l Park, South Dakota

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Day 4: Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Best kept secret of all National Parks


badlands

Amazing, magical, surreal, moonscape, playground wonderland… I could go on and on.
 
A photo shoot on the rocks
A photo shoot on the rocks
 
Stepping back in (geological) time.
 
A quick look at the Badlands will reveal that they were deposited in layers. The layers are composed of tiny grains of sediments such as sand, silt, and clay that have been cemented together into sedimentary rocks. The sedimentary rock layers of Badlands National Park were deposited during the late Cretaceous Period (67 to 75 million years ago) throughout the Late Eocene (34 to 37 million years ago) and Oligocene Epochs (26 to 34 million years ago). Different environments—sea, tropical land, and open woodland with meandering rivers—caused different sediments to accumulate here at different times. The layers similar in character are grouped into units called formations. The oldest formations are at the bottom and the youngest are at the top, illustrating the principle of superposition.
 
 
The lines of history on the rock
The lines of history leave their mark on the rock.
Our first night of camping
 
Camp site in Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Our camp site in Badlands National Park, South Dakota. This was the first night of our trip where we were sleeping in the tents.

 

A big storm moved to the south, lightening filled the night sky, but we didn’t get even one drop!

A storm moves across the plains. Lucky it stayed south of our campsite.
A storm moves across the plains. Lucky it stayed south of our campsite.

 

Amazing colors, both during the day and especially at night.

Amazing sunset for our first night under the stars
Amazing sunset for our first night under the stars

 

Tomorrow we’ll explore the park. In the afternoon, we’ll resume our westward drive, to Wyoming.