Thursday, August 15, 2024

Badlands National Park, South Dakota, 8/6/24


 Day 3 of our trip to South Dakota took us to the "Badlands" a large expanse  (244,000 acres) of prairie interspersed with phantasmagorical rock formations.  Apparently, the Lakota natives already called it 
" "bad lands" and the early French trappers called "les mauvaises terres a traverser,"  due its unusually harsh living environment. 

 

Jim crossing a small mount leading to the higher butte plateau.
Extraordinary beautiful, arid and desolate landscape. We were not prepared for a full hike but I did make it up to the upper plateau and found myself alone in the middle of a moonlike landscape and surrounded by an eerie silence, except for an occasion breeze. 




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