Saturday, July 3, 2021

Badlands

 The Badlands National Park are said to be "like walking on the moon" or something like that. It is quite a sight when you approach the National Park Service entry gate. The hug piles look like rock but they are more like sand. They are continuously eroding from rain and wind. I wonder how they looked fifty or more years ago? We drove around the entire park and then some, going far beyond the park. The park starts south of I-90 at Interior SD and extends west beyond Wall SD. The park has 242,756 acres. 

South of the park is the Buffalo Gap National Grassland with 597,431 acres. The Lakota Indiana people, members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe have lived in the Badlands region forever. Oglala Sioux Tribe included Crazy Horse and Red Cloud. Now the southern unit of Badlands National Park, which includes the White River Visitor Center on th pine Ridge Reservation. We drove through that area and stopped at the Wounded Knee Massacre also known at the Battle of Wounded Knee. Here are a few photos.



We are at the Interior Campground




The Grasslands are in the valley below.

Erosion about one inch per year takes away the land and this is what is left.

No idea why these cattle are climbing up there?

Interior Campground with a good view all around.



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