The Badlands

Our first big stop was in the badlands. It's like the Grand Canyon, on a smaller version. It amazed me that you can just walk out into the badlands at all the pullouts, anywhere you wish. What appears to be rock from a distance, is just hard-packed, dry dirt. We arrived late in the day, and decided to stop for the night.

Setting up the tents was quite the challenge, as the winds were strong across the flat prarie. It never seems to stop blowing. Fires were not allowed, so we ate at the little restaurant just donw the road, then took a short ride. As you can see I am trying things I normally wouldn't do, like walking out on this very narrow ledge. It's higher up than it looks folks. I wasn't brave enough to go to the edge, but Steve made it out there. Later in the night, when Steve went to the bathrooms, we decided to move his tent. I knew that I would pay later, since it was my idea.

We watched a thunderstorm from a great distance that night. Early the next morning, Jerry and I got up and rode up to get some sunrise photos as we were told the colors pop at that time of day. We weren't dissapointed. After getting back to camp and starting to break down the tents, Jerry had a visitor on the outside of his tent. It's hard to tell from this photo, but this guy was as big as the palm of my hand....creeeepppyyyy!

So far it just keeps getting better and better!