More Badlands.... just because...

The Badlands of South Dakota were just so beautiful that I have to post more pictures! It really felt like Heather and I were alone, experiencing the world newly made. There was so much variation between the different areas of the park. There were lots opportunities to get out of the car and walk. In fact, nothing is off limits. The entire area is open for hiking. The interaction between the sky and the Earth is so dramatic. It makes you feel very small indeed. We both decided that this was a place that we wanted to spend more time in. The starkness, the vistas, are all so inviting. It is like the Grand Canyon, only in a more human scale that a visitor can understand and appreciate. Notice how sometime the pictures are at the top and looking down into the canyons and at other times you are at the bottom looking up at the erosion features. That is the most unique part of this park, the opportunity to experience it at all the various levels, the cliffs and the valleys, the vistas and the hidden dead end canyons where it feels as though you are the first human to visit and see it since the dawn of time....