The Badlands of South Dakota

 

After going through some cold weather in Wisconsin and southern Minnesota, we finally got to the Badlands National Park in South Dakota where it was 65 during the day but over 35mph winds! 

Soooo, what’s with the name "Badlands"?

For hundreds of years, the Lakota people have called this area mako sica, which literally translates to “bad lands.” When early French fur trappers passed through this area, they called the area les mauvaises terres a traveser (‘bad lands to travel across’).

Can you see why it is called "bad lands to travel across"? 

Let's look at the layers in the Badlands and see how they came to be over the last 77 million years. If you really are interested in more detail, this site is a great reference:

Geologic Formations: How Badlands Buttes Came to Be (U.S. National Park Service)

The Pierre Shale, which forms the bottommost layer of the park’s geology, was deposited 75-69 million years ago. It was laid down by a shallow inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway. This seaway stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, covering most of the modern Great Plains in shallow, warm water.

On top of the Pierre Shale sit the Yellow Mounds, which are just an altered version of the Pierre Shale despite their striking differences in appearance. After the Western Interior Seaway drained North into the Arctic Ocean, the leftover shales weathered into soils.

The Chadron Formation, consisting largely of light gray claystone beds, was deposited about 37-34 million years ago across an ancient floodplain. 

The Brule Formation, deposited 34-30 million years ago, represents a cooler and drier time in geologic history. 

Above the Brule lies the Sharps Formation, the youngest geologic formation of the park at 30-28 million years old. The base of the Sharps Formation is the Rockyford Ash, a volcanic tuff formed from ash that came from eruptions in the Great Basin, where Utah and Nevada are today.

In order to see the Badlands, there's a 20+ road that takes you from east to west, or west to east with many pullouts where the views above can be seen. 

This hill looks pretty solid but....

....here's what it looks like close up. It's all crumbly and like popcorn.

Here's a few extra photos to give you a sense of how wonderful this place is to visit.

Also, if you're in the right place at the right time you might see these guys....

We've been here twice before, this being our third visit and it's better each time. Hope you enjoyed this quick look at The Badlands of South Dakota.

steve/kim/katie

oh, some oddities along the interstate were pretty cool too.