They Really Aren't So BAD...

The Badlands are a place of special beauty.

The next day, my sister and I ditched the boys and headed out to the South Dakota Badlands for a girl's day out.  I'd visited Badlands National Park several times before, but I wanted Kathy to see the stark beauty and color of this special place, even though we only had a few hours to spend here.

Looking down onto the Badlands.

It is hard to imagine that this area was once a great sea stretching across the Great Plains.  Sediment deposition and subsequent erosion formed what we see today as rounded buttes, sharp spires, and jagged crevices.  Yellow, tan, green and coral bands of strata flow throughout what Native Americans and pioneers called "Bad Lands," because, quite frankly, it IS difficult to traverse this country.  Some of the rock layers contain agate.  They also comprise one of the world's largest fossil beds.  Visitors can watch paleontologists at work at the Saber Site where--you guessed it--a saber-toothed cat fossil was found.  The fossil was actually discovered by a park visitor in 2010, a little girl named Kylie, who promptly reported her find to park rangers (which is what ALL of us SHOULD do).

The Badlands encompass the largest remaining area of mixed grass prairie.  They are also home to one of the world's rarest animals--the black-footed ferret.  Efforts to re-introduce the endangered ferret to this area have thus far been successful, but most visitors will never see one.

A land of color, ruggedness, and secrets.

When Kathy and I visited, the mixed grass prairie was covered with yellow sweetclover (which really does smell sweet), rosy-pink showy milkweed, white field bindweed, purple Canada thistle, and indigo woolly verbena.  We saw a bighorn sheep ewe with her lamb clattering on a rounded butte above us.  Adorable prairie dogs stood watch for predators while their tiny pups played on the prairie.  Bluebirds, rock wrens, and lark sparrows hunted around the rocks and grasses.  Meadowlarks abounded, their sweet, familiar and strangely comforting songs filling the air.   This is where I saw my first burrowing owl during a visit in 2008.  That visit also introduced me to the energetic courtship ritual of common nighthawks.

Badlands National Park deserves several days of exploration and hiking, but Kathy and I only had a few hours.  I enjoyed showing her this magnificent park, even though our time was limited.   I also know that I'll return for yet another visit--this park calls to my soul and I find strange sort of peace here.