Badlands

We told the kids that the Badlands were where we take bad kids and leave them.  I think we had Matthew convinced for a little bit. 

The Badlands in South Dakota are very interesting. I didn’t really get my question answered, which was why in the middle of all these plains did this area happen to look like this. It was formed by water getting below the surface and eroding the rocks. These rocks show all the different environments that existed in this area over the past million years or so. But, it is weird because on one side of the road, you will have grass plains as far as you can see and this on the other side. Very interesting!



Unfortunately, the weather was not perfect. It had been raining a lot, which is very unusual for this area. The dirt of the Badlands turns to sticky mud when wet, so we all got very dirty. The rain stopped, though, so we were able to take a couple trails. We started with the ones that are paved, but the kids wanted to venture out further (no surprise!). So, we were walking out on the mud and rocks. If you were careful and stuck to the rocks on the ground, you could have pretty good footing. But, the kids, especially Zack, just charged ahead full speed. Needless to say, they had a few accidents along the way and ended up considerably muddier.





 At one point, we reached a place where there were cracks everywhere around us with significant drops. The kids were being a little too scary, especially with all the mud. Here, Dave is out on a fairly scary edge with the kids. I don’t know why he feels the need to get the kids in these places for pictures because you absolutely cannot appreciate where they are from this picture.


Zack - being Zack

 I didn't bring my camera on our last hike.  It was labeled as treacherous after heavy rains, so I figured we would not get far.  It was a trail that Dave and I had done years before.  It had a ladder that we had to climb that Dave thought the kids would love.  We set out to look at it with my instructions that we would not climb it because it was not really safe.  But, as soon as the kids saw it, they took off up it.  There was nothing I could have done, short of death threats, that would have stopped them.  So, we ventured up.  The stairs were a little far for Matthew, but he managed well.  They thought it was pretty cool. Here is a picture I found on the internet since I have none of our family.

 
We've seen a lot of animals on our trip, but we could not find the elusive big horn sheep.  I've been watching out for them everywhere.  We'd even gotten to the point that Dave was offering the kids money for good animal sightings.  Finally, at literally our last possible chance, I saw them off in the distance.  You have to look close.  We stopped the car and tried to hike in a little to get a better view.  But, they heard our very loud group coming toward them.  They are females, so they don't have the cool horns.  But, they are big horn sheep, so I was happy.