The Big Trip 9.7.20 - 9.23.20, Part 3 of 9: Badlands National Park, The Second Day
There had been a bit of rain hovering in the forecast but it didn’t look like anything that would be enough to mess with our plans. On the contrary, the dark clouds mixed with bright morning sun made for some vary dramatic lighting. I didn’t get up to shoot photos before dawn but we all piled into the car fairly early and drove up to a parking area that has four trailheads, the Window Trail, The Door Trail, The Notch Trail and the Castle Trail. We all started on the Window Trail because it is only .75 miles round trip. The parking lot is on the east side of the Wall so that early in the morning it was not lit up. The Window Trail headed straight for the wall to an opening that gave us an incredible vista of convoluted rock on the other side that was beautifully lit up by the low morning sun.
View from The Window
After that we walked down to the other end of the parking lot to the Door Trail. This trail blew my mind. Like the Window Trail, it started on the darker shady side of the Wall but soon led us through the Wall to the other side. There we were greeted with a vast landscape of jumbled rock, canyons, gullies, pinnacles and a myriad of strange formations all butted up against the Wall and lit up with the morning sunlight. A boardwalk led from the trailhead to the opening through the Wall but after that you just hiked around on the rock with blue poles guiding you to the end of the plateau where it dropped off into a deep canyon. You didn’t really need to follow the poles as you could see the end of the boardwalk from just about anywhere along the way. We wandered around out there for quite awhile taking lots of pictures and marveling at how amazing everything looked.
Beginning of the Door Trail
Just beyond the end of the boardwalk
The Wall
The lovely Mrs. Newmark
Storm clouds added to the great light
Spectacular!
Just amazing scenery
Love this one of Bob
Threatening clouds
Once we finished the Door Trail we started driving the Badlands Loop Road. It has many scenic overlooks and we stopped at most of them. I also took Bridgit up the wash to see Toadstool Rock.
Toadstool Rock
Along the road we came upon some bighorn rams. I was really excited to get my first photos of rams with curls.
bighorn sheep
bighorn sheep
We stopped again at White River Overlook to show Bridgit and Dana and I think it may be one of the best overlooks in the park. The light wasn’t as good so I was really glad Bob and I drove it the night before.
Having fun!
Along the loop
Yellow Mounds Overlook
A ways beyond Yellow Mounds we came to a junction where you can leave the park and go up to I-90. We opted to continue on the second half of the Badlands Loop Road. Here is where it turns to dirt but it was well maintained. There are two big pluses about this section of the road. One is that since it is a dirt road it is much less traveled. Secondly, this second section of the road takes you through sage prairie and grasslands and is known for an abundance of wildlife. No sooner had we started down the dirt section when we ran into a group of bison. Well we didn’t run into them but we did have to wait while they crossed the road. These beasts are huge!
bison
We also saw pronghorn in a field near us and they were incredible. Known to the be the fastest animal in North America, these pronghorn would run at full bore and then on a dime they would turn the complete opposite direction and bolt the other way. You or me would have had a torn ACL at the very least but the pronghorn flew through the grasslands at breakneck speed with ease. The road eventually turns into private land and winds around back to where our campground was so it made for a really nice loop trip.
pronghorn playing
The team
Part Four will be coming next!