The Badlands National Park

B-b-b-b-bad, b-b-b-b-bad, bad to the bone, b-b-b-b-bad. Uh, what the heck was that? I have no idea, but that's what I had stuck in my head as I was editing the photos below so now I'm subjecting you to the torture. So, the Badlands. What are they? It's a super cool natural occurrence where wind erosion creates really cool formations. It doesn't sound nearly as cool as it looks and you might think, "meh," but seriously, it was one of the prettiest geology-related things ever.

The Badlands were our second stop on our road trip through South Dakota. We also hit up Mount Rushmore. If you haven't seen my Mount Rushmore post, take a look through. I shared our route down from North Dakota and my yummy snacks, among other things. I feel like these National Parks trips are so appropriate for Memorial Day, which is just a few days away.

So, you've got to pay $15 to enter the Badlands National Park and you're allowed to drive through for a year with that pass, which is pretty cool. There's a road that winds right through the park, which was perfect for us, because we were able to drive right through before heading back to our hotel. The park is huge and there's so much to see and plenty or viewpoint areas and little pull-off points so you can hop out of your vehicle and get some good snaps. It was a somewhat overcast day, which I didn't mind because overcast = nice lighting. After a while, the sky did get somewhat bluer; just scroll down and you'll see.

The Badlands reminded me a lot of my trip to Cappadocia. I mean, it's a similar concept, right? Wind sculpting rocks into super cool cones? So awesome. There are little factoid placards everywhere so you can certainly learn a bunch while you're touring.

The only thing is, the wind is obviously v. strong out here.

The yellow mounds was my favorite area. The colors, the contrast, the shapes, I'd never seen anything like it before and it was awesome.

Seriously, if you ever get the chance to come out here - or to visit any badlands areas (there are badlands parks in North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and Colorado too) - I would urge you to go. It's crazy how cool it is.

We were here in late April, which had its bonuses because of the smaller crowd - we saw less than a dozen cars while we were in the park - but I bet in summer time that the grass is much greener and prettier.

Isn't this gorgeous? I mean, it looks like a whole different world, like we're on the moon or Mars or some alien planet.

This was the view we left behind as we were leaving the park.

Ugh, so I was trying so incredibly hard to get a good shot of the hundreds of baby cows we saw but I failed. The baby cows were so cute! They looked like small dogs and there were so many of them. I wanted to take one as a pet.

So that was my trip through the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. I'll be back from France in a few days, which means tons of photos from that trip. Wow, I've done a lot this year! Houston, DC, the Dakotas, France, and I've got a trip to Turks & Caicos booked in October and I expect to do a bunch of fun stuff between now and then, which I'm extremely excited about. I'm not gloating, I'm just happy!

Anyway, thanks for reading! Cheers!