Badlands of South Dakota

We drove east yesterday on a trip around Badlands National Park. The scenery was once again spectacular. These areas started at one time as flat layers of varying sediments and with time,wind and water, gradually eroded. The harder materials eroded at slower rates than softer material so that hills were left and gullies created. The colors are amazing and the shapes are all different. We jogged in on a side trip to a place called Sheep Mountain Table. A table is a high section of land, flat at the top, which for some reason eroded slower than surrounding areas. It's an island. Traversable areas between the low Prairie of the bottom sections and the high areas of the high Prairie are called passes. The gravel road through the pass to the top of Sheep Mt. Table was steep and windy, and they were doing some roadwork to fix potholed areas. At one of the work areas we stopped to get out and met a young man from Haddenfield Hts, NJ, who had graduated from Georgetown and was working the summer as the resident Paleo-monitor. Whenever any disturbance of earth occurs in the Badlands, his job is to be there and check to make sure that any fossils run into are properly inspected recorded. The area is loaded with fossils. As the layers continue to erode, fossils are often exposed. The road from where we ran into him and the tip of the table top ran through Indian Reservation land and became rougher and rougher. We dropped into 4-wheel and forged along to the very end. The views were spectacular. It was mid day, so there were few shadows and pictures will probably be bleached out. From there north to the main Badlands Loop. Sensory overload.
We headed home and I started suffering from indigestion of some sort and went down hill until night fall. Had to bail out on Tom and Joyce who were heading over to see the night show at Rushmore. We thought they were staying until Friday, but are leaving tomorrow am. We had a wonderful visit with them.