In the Badlands

Today we got up, made instant coffees, sat in our Canadian Tire chairs in the howling wind and watched the sun rise over the buttes. It rose super fast, like it had somewhere to be. Seems everybody else did, too. Soon as that sun slipped over the horizons, the vans and RVs started their engines. Then it was a mad dash over the rutted roads to get an early start on the trails.

Ivan and I ready to go

No one was taking park fees, owing to the shut down, though rangers were still circling the park. And the bus tours kept coming and going all day.

Entrance to the Badlands

Our first hike was Castle Trail, a 17km, 3.5 hour easy hike through the edge of the badlands past eerily people-shaped hoodoos, buttes, and mesas. Fun fact I just learned: these badlands here have a very short lifespan--only 1 million years, and are eroding at a rate of an inch a year. By comparison, a nearby mountain range is eroding at 1 inch every10,000 years. Come here in 500,000 years and they will be gone. 

Castles on the Hill

Some of the formations at the top of the hills looked like ancient castles--hence the name (at least that's our guess). Others looked like big breasted women, or waves smashing up after hitting a rock. Some looked like lions, and one even looked like the Sphinx. 

Panorama

The view from the "Door"

As we passed through the entrance to the badlands, the wind picked up, swirling dust around our legs (I came back with a full coat of grey sand on my legs.) While hiking, we heard the warning whistles of the prairie dogs, but couldn't see them. The only other signs of life were: yellow-breasted birds called western meadowlarks, which swooped when we got too close to their nests; a magpie who tried to eat our lunch as we were packing it up; one red ant; a single ladybug; and a terrifying but slow-to-respond wasp-like vespid the size of a pointer finger that appeared to nest in the mud of the badlands but really, really, really wanted inside our car. (We had to pull over twice on our way to the park to tease two separate wasps clinging to our visors out the open window, and narrowly missed getting another wasp trapped on our way out).

Glad we didn't see these guys

After the Castle trail, we hiked the famous Notch Trail. A tougher trail, Notch required not only confident hiking and a good knowledge of left from right (not my best skill, and I almost ended up over the cliff), but also the ability to climb a log ladder both up and down a very steep incline. J

A view of the Notch Trail ladder

Just the site of that ladder gave me flashbacks to when Cohen and Ivan convinced me to hike the Via Ferrata in Switzerland. I really thought I'd never get off that mountain.

 

Going down...

But the reward--a view for miles over the badlands--was worth all the fear.

The view from the notch

Foot sore and dusty as hell we stopped by the famous Wall Drug store in the town of Wall, just a few miles from the entrance to the park, for a homemade ice cream and its famous "free ice water".

Full view of the Wall Drug

Selling Wranglers

Western Periodicals at Wall Drugs. Not sure why that outfit with those books...

Now we're back at Nomad's view for the night, watching an orange moon rise across the badlands. Our  poor van is shaking like a houseboat on an ocean as the winds whip around us. Temperatures are dropping, and we're heading to bed for an early night and early departure south to Rocky Mountain tomorrow. Thinking about you all and write to you soon!