July 25-29, 2009 Badlands Trip
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Later I explored the rest of the park by driving the loop road, I wish I had known how much more of the park there was too look at earlier. Just tons of overlooks with incredible views. I hiked a few of the formations close to the NE entrance. Here is a view from the top of a "badland formation". You can see the road at the bottom.
Hiking was pretty fun in this area until I came across a rattle snake, then I was more than careful and it kind of ruined the fun. I went back to my car and headed to wall to get some ice for the cooler. This road was pretty cool though.
In Wall I got ice and checked some data through some hotels wi-fi. The fog potential was gone for tomorrow, so I figured I'd go to the black hills tomorrow morning sometime. Went back to my campsite and decided to wait for sunset, only problem is that I woke up at 4a.m. and right now it was only 2p.m. and the sun sets at 8p.m. I got really bored during this time. I took a long hike just off of one of the overlooks along rim road. It was probably a 3 or 4 mile walk, it was pretty cool being out there and all you hear is the wind and nothing else. Barren land.
I also drove up to Sheep mountain Table. This is a sweet view, but I'm sure that the view further down the road was cooler, but the sign said "only high clearance vehicles beyond this point". Lol I was up there with this French family in an RV with Nevada plates. It was kind of weird. The table is 400 or 500 feet above the valley with some pretty cool views.
When I got back to camp the buffalo had invaded lol. Surrounding the tents and actually in the camp.
This was hilarious. That Guy walks by my car (I'm sitting in my car, not taking any chances of them charging) and says, "I'm going to try to lead them back into camp with my red shirt." I was like, okay good idea Idiot. It was funny watching him. They slowly moved back out of the camp.
The rest of the night basically was worthless, no sunset (overcast) and no night ops, so I just slept. Woke up at 3a.m. to flashes. I thought, what the heck is that. I poke my head out the window and see another flash, lightning. Aww crap its going to rain I think. So I get out and put the rain cover on. Then halfway back to going to sleep, I think, wait...Lightning. I get stuff together and go. But of course when I get out there it stops. Did get a few shots with the stars above which was cool.
This first one is full of action...well, kinda. Two lightning strikes, Venus is poking through the clouds there, The Pleiades star cluster is in there and Mars is in between that and Venus.
The above image has an iridium flare in it above Venus. I got tired here (probably due to only 6 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours) so I just sleep there in my car, until about 8a.m. I think. I head back to camp to pack up the tent and get out of there by 8:30a.m. I decide to do some day shots of the badlands so I drove the loop and stopped at a few places.
I didn't notice that hawk or eagle there at the time. I wish I had, I have not done much bird photography. I'm fairly excited to go to squaw creek in Missouri this winter to shoot some eagles.
The big badlands overlook had a crazy expanse of "badland".
I then proceeded to Rapid City to upload these photos and cool off in a coffee shop.
Continue to Page 3, the Black Hills
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