More than just bad lands

The term badlands are perhaps a misnomer as this unique terrain is more than just bad lands. Out here, you can spot layers of colorful sediments and clay rich soils exposed by the erosion patterns. Multiple parks in this part of the country feature such badlands, but perhaps the most famous of these is Badlands National Park. My personal favorite is the Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Badlands, however, offers very accessible bad lands along with glimpses of the prairie dog life in one easy drive. Here are scenes from Badlands National Park that highlight the unique geology of this place. Which one's your favorite?

Badlands National Park
SD USA

A National Parks Journey - Badlands National Park

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My first impression of Badlands National Park as I drove west on a long flat section of the interstate in South Dakota was that it was just land that was not worth the time spent to look at. But once I turned into the park, toured its various attractions and hiked to its hidden gems, I found myself in a diverse landscape, full of deep canyons with colorfully layered clay soils that cut through a lush prairie dotted by the mounds and burrows of the ubiquitous prairie dogs.

The rich bounty of wildlife and nature combined with the remarkable scenery, with the occasionally striking cloud patterns of the big sky country was something I had never experienced anywhere. It was easy to get lost in such a landscape set in a National Park far away from anything else. So if the long monotonous stretch of I-90 cutting through the vast plains of South Dakota ever gets boring, this park severs as a superb diversion. And for the inquisitive traveler, it offers a lot more.

Badlands National Park
SD USA

A National Parks Journey - Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave was quite unlike any other caves or caverns I had explored. While most carried the typical speleothems (stalactites, stalagmites, columns and drapes), Wind Cave, set in the heart of Black Hills region, features boxwork formations formed from the strong winds that channel through the caverns of this park. There are no dripping stalactites or massive caverns, but tiny needle like structures and flowering growths of calcite that dominate one of the longest caverns of the park.

It is not a park on the main tourist map for Black Hills, and were I not searching for National Parks to visit on my cross-country trip, I would not have even considered it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the rare formations I saw during my day trip to the 30th National Park

Wind Cave National Park
SD USA

Lost in Badlands

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I never really grasped the size and the sense of scale of the country while flying from coast to coast. It was during my two road trips across the nation that I really learnt to appreciate the vastness and dramatic diversity of the nation. From driving through the monotonous undulating cornfields of the Midwest to traversing the glacier-capped Rocky mountains, the spine of the country, each day presented unique stories and uncovered hidden gems.

Badlands National Park was one such gem. I really hadn't paid much attention to this park tucked along a long remote stretch of an interstate, until I actually drove past it. Curiosity soon got the better of me, and I snuck into the park to better appreciate this parks' unappreciated wonders. This one image captures the essence of it: strata of rock showing vast diversity in colors and patterns that I have not really seen anywhere else.

Badlands National Park
SD USA

The Three Faces of Badlands

Badlands might seem like a non-descript National Park marked in the middle of the map of the US. But enter it, and you are in a wonderland of strange formations with layers of yellow, brown and green and vast carpets of wildflowers punctuated by shiprock structures where wildlife roams. If anything, this place was the opposite of badlands.

I only had time for one night there and I could never get enough of the innumerable trails winding through the colorful canyons. I do hope I can return back once again and witness the march of the puffy white clouds across this strange and vast landscape in the middle of the country.

Badlands National Park

SD, USA

The Missing Landscape

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To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.

Aldo Leopold

Badlands certainly seem like that: a forgotten piece of geological features in a remote corner of the windswept plains of South Dakota. So much so that until you are right up at it, you never get to realize what a treasure trove of history, geology, and nature this place really is.

National Parks, in that way, preserve such forgotten landscapes, the boundaries selected by not what people would want to visit, but by what the future generations don't even know they would need. Having visited 34 National Parks, I have been able to experience these some of what these diverse landscapes have to offer, and I look forward to getting surprised by more.

This is one such landscape in Badlands National Park, where the windswept rolling prairies give way to rugged hillscapes, and water-carved canyonlands painted with natural colors like no other. The 24 hrs I spent there left me wanting for more of this forgotten landscape

Badlands National Park
SD USA