Into The Badlands

Friday, 25 September 2009

Road Trip Day 37

As I may have mentioned, my adventure is not all about scoring points, crossing things off a list and seeing everything. That said, some of it is about that and today I went to my Twelfth National Park. Yep, I've been to 12 National Parks, and I'm not including the National Monuments like Scott's Bluff and Devil's Tower.

Stripy

As with all the National Parks, Badlands has it's own unique features, but it is hard not to make comparisons to Grand Canyon when it comes to describing the general form. The formations of the Badlands were also formed by river erosion through coloured, layered rock.

The scale is entirely different, though don't for a moment think that the Badlands are small potatoes. As you stand on the rim looking down, the peaks and ravines plummet down to the plain below in dramatic fashion.

The erosion which caused these amazing forms continues today and the rim, or Wall, of the Badlands is slowly moving northwards. The rock being eroded away was laid down in a whole series of varied colour bands in buff, red, grey, yellow and even green layers.

In some places the bands are eroding over one another with colours bleeding down over the lower layers.

I spent most of the day driving the loop road, stopping at the turn outs and finishing off with a hike into an accessible area of the Badlands to get some invigorating hands-on with the rocks. I wonder if it's too late to study for yet another Geology qualification?

Wildly Inaccurate

Thinking back again to the planning stages of my trip, I predicted that the "Road Trip" back from LA to New York would be around 4,500 to 5,000 miles.

Wrong.

Central Time

Oh, and I lost another hour today as I drove over the Missouri River into Pierre, South Dakota where I am staying tonight.

Goodnight.

View Driving Day 37 in a larger map

Stats - Day Sixty-Three

Distance travelled - 206 miles - Wall to Pierre, SD via Badlands National Park.

State count - 24 + DC + B.C.

Room numbers stayed in - 203, 1, 148, 212, 205, 210, 246, 118, 3, 145, 229, 111, 207, 206, 40, 605, "Cowboy", 35, 11, 18, 262, 216, 208, 430, 216, 59, 226, 115 / 110*, 309

*room switch