Pictures From The Passenger Seat: The Badlands

I don't know about you, but I never know what to expect from a new place I'm going to visit.

Sure, I do research. I use Google, TripAdvisor.com, wikipedia, pretty much everything I can get my hands on, I read over it and see what sounds like fun.

Then sometimes you get there and it's still not what you were thinking it would be. I guess that's using your mind's eye.

When we went to the Badlands in Badlands, SD, I'm not really sure what I expected it to be. A desert? A small Grand Canyon? I really wasn't sure, but from what I read, it was a sight to behold and oh so pretty!

On a side note, when you have the opportunity to visit National Parks, there generally is a gate fee. It's not too much per day and it's generally per car or per person if you're on foot. We looked it up, I think the Badlands was around $20-30 per car for a few day pass, not too bad. We already knew we were going to be visiting several national parks, and we could get an annual pass to all national parks and something something something for $80. That proved to be well worth it, you'll see by the time you finish reading about all the great sites we've seen in the American NorthWest!

Ok, lets get started!

The badlands are located in Badlands, SD. Not a lot around there, but Wall, SD. Wall is a cute little town right on the interstate. Home of Wall Drug! You'll see hundreds of billboard signs about Wall Drug on the way there. It's a fun place with a great cafe! Be sure to check it out while you're there! We were particularly fond of their breakfast and I'm not a big donut eater, but their donuts are pretty good.

J & D ventured down the path to get a better view.

J's parents were enjoying the view much higher

The view was pretty spectacular!

We drove throughout the park. We saw buffalo (or bison - whichever you want to call them), prairie dogs, prong horn sheep and a white fox! It was about to cross the road as we were coming around a corner! The prairie dogs were very social and were great at posing for the camera. The buffalo looked HUGE and we used our zoom lenses to get pictures of them. The prong horned sheep took care of that for us -- They were WAAAAYYYYY down in a valley area on some mountain areas. We could see them with zoom, but no way to get close, which was fine.

Here is where we saw the prong horn sheep. They look more like goats to me, but the flyer said they were sheep.

Here, let me zoom in a little so you can see them better.

Here's a couple closer looks

It's no mystery why we wouldn't be at risk of them hurting us - it'd be an all day hike for them to get TO us!

Here's some more of the pretty scenery

Next up was Prairie Dog Town! They were sure chatterboxes the day we were there! The fact that they're super cute and they'll pose for you are a bonus!

I'm not sure who this last guy is, but he thinks this little guy will let him pet him. You can see the other little friend off to the side telling him to RRUUUNNNNN!!

This area is the buffalo grass area. It's beautiful prairie.

you can see these buffalo are just HUGE! How people can try to get right there next to them is beyond me. They're beautiful, majestical creatures!

We were driving out through the countryside enjoying the view when we happened around a corner and saw this guy about to run across the dusty, dirt road.