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.

Some Picturesque Barns

This will be a quick entry. It contains a few photos of some barns that we saw as we travelled across Iowa, southern Minnesota and South Dakota that we thought were memorable.

There's something majestic about barns, how they look, what they're used for and how they end their lives and so many different styles. 

Enjoy them.

...not sure this was a barn but it's very photogenic

A typical road out in South Dakota shows off this barn. We were the only vehicle on this road for miles. So peaceful being off the interstate.

This is one crazy looking barn for sure

 

We have covered a lot of ground since we started and hope to get cracking on some new entries, including the Badlands of South Dakota, Wall Drug and Mount Rushmore. 

steve/kim/katie

It got a mite chilly when we got to Wisconsin in late April 

NEW TRIP OUT WEST 2025

Well, off we go on another adventure, this time out west for the summer. Here's the map of our itinierary. We'll spend 6 weeks at one spot in Libby, Montana and 6 weeks at one spot in SW Wisconsin before taking a month to get back home in Florida.

We'll be posting more this time of our travels with lots of photos.

steve/kim/katie

July/August/September/October

Here's a map of the second half of our 2024 Summer out-West trip. 23 stops! 

We visited the "Scabland" again for the third time....us amateur geologists cannot get enough of the place. In case you've not heard of the greatest flood in US history, here's our blog entry that describes it.

https://stricksretirement.blogspot.com/2020/06/glacial-lake-missoula-montana.html

This is Dry Lake. It was formed by the flood coming over from the upper left. You can see the yellow circle that shows a car down at the bottom to show the immense scale.

We spent an entire month at one stop in July. Libby, Montana. One of our all-time favorite RV campgrounds. Not much to do there expect to relax, do some home projects and be lazy.

I did say "relaxing" didn't I? This is during one of our kayak paddles on a nearby lake.

Our "front yard" view where we sat every morning and had our coffee

Kootenai Falls.....spectacular!

Then, in August, we started on the road again. First stop: Glacier National Park, both east and west sides.

 

We stopped at Cheyenne, Wyoming for a week to poke around. Great weather and some drinks.

And a couple of extra photos of our journey....

Wonderful 4-night stay in Shelby, Montana. It was so nice to see some horizons after a month in the forest of NW Montana.

This used to be the greatest sheep gathering place for shipping to the east in the west at one time. Neat little town. Population: 177.

And we weren't without our troubles....

Look! Our right door came off one day when I went to open it!

 

This is how we had to keep it refrigerated until I could fix it. Fortunately, I found a local guy that instructed me on how to rivet and weld/glue the latch back together. (we also have an extra frig "downstairs" where we stashed some food so it wouldn't spoil). Gotta love traveling !

 

Okay...there are just too many photos and stops worth showing but you're probably getting worn out now just looking at all these photos. I'll do another one later. Enjoy for now! 

Thank you for following us. It's a blast!

steve/kim/katie