On the road with Mike and Tina: Badlands Day Two

Monday the 22nd

Since we moved into a new time zone, the dogs still think it's an hour later than it really is. So we all got up at 5:45 AM with the sun shining and the temperature around 70 degrees. Well there wasn't any sense in trying to go back to bed, the "Punky Alarm" had gone off and that's all there was to it!! So I got dressed, did my normal morning routine and took them out for their morning constitutional. When I cam back, Tina had gone back to bed, so I fed the kids and after they ate I put them in with Tina and walked over to the cookhouse to grab breakfast. Pancakes with syrup, link sausages, juice and coffee for about $6.00 and I got to sit out on the veranda and eat while I read my book. Pretty nice!!

When I got back to the coach Tina was up and waiting for me. We had coffee and she had a bowl of cereal while wee firmed up our schedule. We had decided to do a loop drive through a portion of the park taking time to make lots of stops. The kids would stay in the coach with the A/C on as it was supposed to get up to 90 degrees today and we'd try to get back within five hours.

We left camp around 9:30 AM and drove up to the booming metropolis of Interior where we got gas in the car then drove to the Post Office to drop off the postcards Tina sends to all the nieces and nephews from our various stops. As we drove out of town we passed the jail, school, church and bar. Other than a few small houses, that was pretty much it.

Once again on the road we pass through the Badlands National Park (http://www.nps.gov/badl/) entrance and turn west to follow the Loop Road. This is a fascinating area. People have lived in this are for over 11,000 years. Yet human history pales in comparison to the eons it took to form these lands. Approximately 75 million years ago Earth's climate was warmer than it is now, and a shallow sea covered much of the Great Plains. Stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada and from western Iowa to western Wyoming, this sea teemed with life. In today's Badlands the bottom of that sea appears as a grayish-black sedimentary rock called the Pierre (pronounced "peer") shale. This layer is an incredibly rich source of fossils, for creatures sank to the bottom of the sea when they died and over a long course of time became fossils. Within the park, the fossilized remains of a variety of animals have been found.

Eons pass. The pushing and shoving of continental plates leads to an active period of mountain-building in the ancestral Rocky Mountains.This causes the land under the inland sea to rise, and in turn, the sea retreats and drains away. In time, the area that we now know as the Badlands is exposed to air and sunshine, yet it looks nothing like the landscape that we are familiar with today. The climate is humid and warm, and rainfall is abundant. On the new land a subtropical forest develops, dense and dark. It flourishes for millions of years. Eventually, though, the climate slowly grows cooler and drier and the forest gives way, first to savannah, then later on to grasslands so much more like the present landscape.

We make our first stop at the Fossil Trail, a raised boardwalk that goes out into the area along the roadside where a half dozen fossils have been discovered and put into protective cases for viewing. Then its on up the road where we make another half dozen stops both down in the basin and along the ridge at the edge of the plateau.

Finally, after a twenty five mile stretch we decided to make a side jaunt up to the town of Wall, home of the famous "Wall Drug" (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2216) a large collection of clothing shops, restaurants and jewelry shops. We make a brief foray into the heart of the emporium then decide to have lunch before doing any more exploring. We cross the street to the Cactus Cafe where Tina has a Roast Beef Dip and I have a Chipolte Chicken Salad. Both are very good. After lunch we explored more of Wall Drug where I bought a new hat (my Fathers Day present) and we had a couple of small chocolate malteds from the old fashioned soda fountain.

We left Wall Drug and stopped at a grocery store then headed back into the Badlands where we wound our way back to the basin floor and made the trek across the valley to US-44 for the drive home. There is so much to see when you take your time. We passed large herds of cattle, but also a Pronghorn antelope, many Prairie Dog colonies, a Western Meadowlark sitting on an old fence post, Wild Horses on a bluff over the White River, a hawk hunting prairie dogs, lots and lots of different wild flowers including Prairie Cactus that were in bloom. We definitely came at a good time of year with everything in bloom and the many colors of green grasses to contrast with the eroded formations. And the fragrances from all the flowers is almost overpowering.