Behold the beauty of the Badlands! Road Trip Day 4 Episode 8

[robertpaulsen]

There’s a timeless quality to the Badlands in South Dakota. The scenery is undeniably stark and desolate. Driving through the scenic road, we were awed by the layer of different colors infused in the rock formations. Red, grey, white, yellow and some green – the colors kept changing as the sun moved its position.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. It's a fascinating place.

Visited many years ago - it had been very hot and dry that day, and we arrived toward evening. At the place we stopped there weren't any other visitors. We just stood there quietly and looked out at the dry pink hills. And what was so weird was the complete silence - no birds, no rustling, no voices, no cars. Nothing. You could hear the pulse in your own head. I remember that moment very clearly even though it was 40 years ago.

[robertpaulsen]

3. Yes, I loved those moments!

Although because it was the afternoon, often it was not totally quiet because birds would be chirping in the background. But there were many moments walking among those hills when it was eerily quiet. How did the colors of the hills look at dusk? I will never forget our journey there.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. The hills looked kind of pinky-purplish toward sunset.

I'm glad we were there at that time (and also because the sun wasn't so intense and it had started to cool off a bit - it had been 112F during the day). The silence and those colors were such an amazing experience.

[catbyte]

5. One of the most awesome sights I've ever seen was a big thunderstorm breaking over

the Badlands. Talk about surreal--it looked like something Steven Speilberg would think up.

[d_r]

2. Get one of those

Fry bread tacos

[robertpaulsen]

11. Damn, I wish we had!

We had brought a lunch with us that we ate before going into the park. Then we saw them selling those and were too full to satisfy our curiosity. What do they taste like?

[d_r]

13. Im not good at describing

But fry bread is sort of like a funnel cake or elephant ear from a county fair, only not sweet like desert. It is fluffy and it sounds like it wouldn't be good with taco toppings like meat, beans, lettuce, sour cream, but it great with those.

[catbyte]

4. There's nothing better than running around the Badlands in 90F heat w/10% humidity

then go to a local diner and order a beer served in a frosted mug. Heaven!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. During my trip to the Badlands

we'd driven all the way from Minneapolis in a car without air conditioning, and the temp in central SD was 112F - so of course we had all the windows open. When we finally stopped for a meal in late afternoon we realized that nobody had had to go to the bathroom for something like 12 hours - like gerbils. We sucked down a couple of pitchers of ice water and felt as if we were expanding like bath sponges.

[catbyte]

9. Did you stop at Wall Drug? Free Ice water!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. We did.

I don't know what it's like now, but it was really ... different ... in 1976.

[catbyte]

12. I was there a couple of years ago. It's still...out there.

[robertpaulsen]

15. That sounds refreshing! The diner, that is.

It wasn't super hot while we were there. Afterward, we drove over to Wall Drug for some refreshment there. We're editing the video for that and should post it later this week.

[Blue_Tires]

8. SD is where you live?

[robertpaulsen]

14. No, I live in California.

This was from a really big road trip that we went on a few months ago. We went through six different states and we were just amazed by all the great sights.

[robertpaulsen]

16. Some pictures we took that show the beautiful colors.