Day Fifteen
Day Fifteen

Badlands National Park, SD to Grand Island, NE
June 27th, 2004

High Point of the Day....
Low Point of the Day......
Brian - Carhenge
Theresa - Exploring the Badlands
Brian - The lack of a sunny morning
Theresa - Bumping a bird with the bus
Miles Traveled Today
Total Miles Traveled
Miles Theresa Drove
Weather
502
4414
307 (1289 total)
Partly cloudy, in the 70's
Price of Gas 
(average per gallon)
Wildlife
Night's Lodging
Where this Page was Uploaded
1.86
Cows, bison, prairie dogs, deer, pronghorn, turtles, horses
Grand Island KOA
Bellville, KS

Daily Didactic
So, the next time you drive into the Badlands in the early evening, the sun is still high above, and you think "we should just get an early start on the hiking in the morning and relax right now", you might really want to get up and go look at the pretty rocks.

The morning started around 8:00, under low clouds, after the most amazingly windy night we've ever experienced in the bus. Heavy things were blowing off picnic tables in nearby sites. The wind had died down, but the clouds were almost sprinkling. What this means in the Badlands is that the colors are not as brilliant, as the sun really provides the contrast. Apparently, if it had really started raining it would have also brightened colors up, but it was just threatening a light drizzle. For us, it was still very amazing to look at, but the pictures are all very flat until later in the morning when the sun peaked out on our drive around the Badlands loop. It's very fascinating country, it really looks like a lot of very colorful ornately sculptured mud. A whole lot.

We hiked the four mini hikes around the Northeast Entrance and then drove around the top of the Badlands loop, stopping at a few lookouts and the fossil bed walk. We continued on around the very pretty and very washboard Sage Creek Rim Road, which eventually deposited us in the wonderfully ironic town of Scenic. Scenic may have been scenic at some point, but we doubt it, and we couldn't promise there are actually any residents. We headed south from Scenic across the Pine Ridge Reservation, through the town of Pine Ridge, and into Nebraska. Nebraska turns out to be a pleasant state of rolling hills, farmland, and small towns. We took Nebraska Highway 2, from west to east, until we came to rest in Grand Island for the night.


Daily Pictures (Slide Show)

Morning in a blustery Cedar Pass campground Morning deer
Cacti Theresa scaling the ladder on the way to the Notch
We just couldn't quite tell where right was Brian meandering along a dangerous cliff
Theresa celebrating vastness Theresa contemplating vastness
Wild Sunflowers The pullout at Yellow Mounds
They are bad, bad lands The Sage Creek Rim road
Hay bales on the southern section of the Sage Creek Rim road One of the more scenic pieces of Scenic, SD
Nebraska did not bother to welcome us, but South Dakota said goodbye Ahhh...
Carhenge Meticulously created by...
...ancient mechanics Spawning Salmon
The Fourd Seasons Cows and windmills, go Nebraska
Nebraska Highway 2



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