Friday, Aug 7 - Badlands National Park

We arose to threatening skies, so we tore down camp and had breakfast before the rain hit. No bison were seen nearby, but we did spot some off in the distance as we neared departure. We drove to Chamberlain, SD, and stopped at the very cool Lewis and Clark wayside rest overlooking the Missouri River. Then on to the next rest area for a lunch stop in the heat and wind. By the time we arrived in the Badlands around 4 pm, it was 96 degrees, with clear skies. We hiked the 1.5 mile Notch Trail with its loose wood ladder, and overlook of the southern reaches of the Badlands and the Visitor’s Center far below. After that, we headed to the visitor’s center and to the next door café for an ice cream snack before heading out to the Sage Creek Wilderness for an overnight backpacking trip. However, just as we were geared up to depart we continued to watch very threatening skies get worse, including lightening. So, as disappointing as it was, we made the decision not to head out into the unknown, and instead drove to the other side of the park to the Sage Creek Campground, which wasn’t much more than a patchy grass area.

It was already dark when we arrived, and we plopped down in an unmarked area with other campers around us, and quickly set up our tents with very intense lightening and rain threatening around us. One of the scouts commented that it looked like a WW I horizon with lightening and light rumbling of thunder everywhere. We had dinner by lamplight, then the rain drove us to our tents for the night, which we had tried to secure with extra guide lines as best we could. We were glad we did because we got hit with a major thunderstorm for about an hour and a half. High winds, heavy thunder and lightening, and lots and lots of rain. (No hail though. We heard stories of other locations in SD and WY where it hailed heavily!) With every major lightening crash Gary would let out a wild war whoop of glee!! Each tent told stories of how they had to use their bodies to hold down parts of the tents that the wind was trying to displace. In the middle of it all, Michael got out of his tent and raced from tent to tent to re-secure whatever stakes and lines he found to be pulled out. I was proud of my little North Face Tadpole tent – all my stakes and guidelines held, and my tent remained secure. It was strange being in my tent in the middle of all that wind and rain with nothing to do but lay there. Sleep was out of the question, until it finally died down. Wow, what a memory THAT left us!


Badlands National Park photos - click for more