8/18/12 -- Farms, Ranches and the Badlands

After we left Watertown SD, we spent the whole day driving across the state.  When we got in (late) I was too tired to blog.  I’m doing better at my share of the driving.  Having a second driver to help while I build up my driving muscles is making this trip possible.

South Dakota is really two states, divided by the Missouri River.  On the east side of the river we found miles and miles of farmland interspersed with ranches.  The ranches were spreads of brown grass with huge herds of black angus and a few white face cattle.  There are so few trees that entire herds try to cluster under each one during the heat of the day like shoppers at the mall on Super Sale Day.

We saw fields of corn that wasn’t as tall as Wisconsin’s.  Lots of green fields might have contained soy beans or sugar beets or potatoes – we are all too many years away from our childhood farm experiences to know for sure.  The surprise was immense fields of sunflowers, all in glorious bloom.  As we traveled across the state, they turned to follow the sun on its journey across its sky-road.  The sunflowers looked like ancient sun-worshippers.  Beautiful!

After we crossed the Missouri, the landscape changed as if we had moved through a door between rooms with radically different décor.  Ranches and open land took over from farmland.  The feel of the country changed.  Towns looked different – more western, somehow.  We entered the land of wide open spaces and sang “Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam…”

We have acquired a traveling companion.  Winston the Moose has joined Drichab Anna in her travels.  He likes open fields where he could run (if he wasn’t stuffed).  He has a bucket seat (in a bucket of kindling, well padded) and loves to look out the window at horses and cows.  Drichab Anna shares her meals with him.  He is fond of grapes and onion rings.

The Badlands were amazing.  Our first stop was an old homestead with several sod houses and a prairie dog town. That was really interesting. I got some pictures for my next book, “Norway Fjords, Nebraska Plains and California Orange Groves" about how my family immigrated to this country and their lives as pioneers.

At the prairie dog town, the p. dogs were so tame we could get quite close to them for pictures. When we came too near them, their sentry squeaked a warning and every p. dog in sight dove into their burrows.

In the Badlands, wind and water have eroded into the landscape forming ridges and mountains that are striated.  The layers were formed millions of years ago as an ancient sea ebbed and flowed.  It is hard to imagine this land under water.  Now it is high desert several thousand feet above sea level.  Some darker layers were formed by ash blown from volcanoes in the far west.

 We camped on a barren hill.  The wind blew constantly so we were thankful for the funny windbreaks over each picnic table.  There were no trees, just brown grass.  We were in a Cedar Pass National Park Campground, surrounded by the badlands.  As we watched the evening shadows come, the Badlands ridges changed colors and aspect.

In the morning, we were greeted by a young man named John who was camping a couple of sites down.  He sat on his table and played his home-made didgeridoo.  The mournful sounds matched the unworldly spires and ridges of wind-sculpted sandstone that surrounded us.  (Couldn't align this pix in vertical...)

We took a hike down into the Badlands a little way.  The sign at the beginning said there was a trail, but we couldn’t see it very well.  All the ridges and dry stream beds looked alike so we made our way across the basin as best we could.  My hiking sticks were mighty handy as I picked my way along, trying to find the most level way.  Not much was level.  I loved it.  Here are a couple of pictures from that hike.

That afternoon we left the Badlands and headed 50 miles west to the Black Hills.  Since our first destination was Wind Cave, we went first to the south end of the park.  We drove winding two-lane mountain roads with hairpin curves and deep valleys.  Drichab Anna is getting used to mountains.  She can't help being a flat-lander but she is also falling in love with the west.

On this mountain ride we saw tons of animals grazing close to the road.  Bison (not buffalo which don't exist on this continent) were unafraid until a guy on a motorcycle tried to herd a bull (Stupid!!!).  When the bull started posturing, we left that scene.  We ran into a herd of a dozen bison that were effectively stopping traffic too! 

We also saw lots of pronghorn antelope:

That night found us camping at 5000’ elevation in Elk Mountain Campground in the Black Hills. 

The next day we explored the Black Hills, but I’ll tell you about that in my next post.  We should have an electric hookup tonight so I’ll be able to post then.  We are having a wonderful time and seeing a panorama of this beautiful country of ours.