Badlands National Park

The Badlands are made up of five layers.  You will see the explanation of these in later photos. 

You will have to click on the photo to enlarge it for reading.  Can you imagine the dismay of someone riding across the plains in the 1800's when they came upon this wall?

The tourist section of the Badlands is less than half of the overall land area with most of the rest being within the borders of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The Cedar Pass area is where the majority of park facilities are located.

Of course we had to get out to do a little hiking.  Read the description of this hike on this sign.  We didn't read it before we started off so we didn't know about the ladder.

More than half the ladder required four point contact - hands and feet.   We walked up about half but had to come down most of it using both hands and feet.

View of the ladder from the top.

View from the notch at the end of the trail.

Going back we saw these interesting formations.  The whole hike only lasted about an hour for us.

We stopped at the Visitor Center for information on the Badlands.  This display was about the oldest layer.

Click on photo to enlarge it for reading.

Titanothere skull
 

Alligators in South Dakota?  You bet!

This display of the roots of the bluestem grass roots was at least 6' tall.  Those are some deep roots.  There are nearly 60 species of grass in the Badlands.

Did you know there were ferrets in the Badlands?  We didn't.

These two rams were butting heads right before we got the cameras out.

You never know what kind of "wildlife" you are going to encounter.

This ram was a poser.

In this zoomed in view you can see the tracking collar.