tierneytravels, U.S. National Parks

Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I mentioned in the posts A Wander About Downtown Rapid City, SD and Carhenge, in July we ventured on an ambitious and kind of epic roadtrip to Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska, some of our neighboring (and sort of neighboring) states to Colorado.

Since John retired, we are trying to see as many of the U.S. National Parks as possible over the next couple of years (and who knows what kind of funding they will have in the future to host visitors, their have already been serious cuts to National Park staff); as we feel they are some of the best parts of the U.S.

So during our roadtrip while in South Dakota traveling from Rapid City, South Dakota we stopped briefly at Wind Caves National Park; and then spent a large part of the day at Badlands National Park.

Badlands National Park

Whatever images I share they will not do justice to the magnificence of this National Park.

As the park’s website states: “The rugged beauty of the Badlands draws visitors from around the world. These striking geologic deposits contain one of the world’s richest fossil beds. Ancient horses and rhinos once roamed here. The park’s 244,000 acres protect an expanse of mixed-grass prairie where bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and black-footed ferrets live today.”

First we stopped at the Visitor Center so we could get our National Park Passport stamped for Badlands National Park and pick up some souveniers.

Here are some of the amazing rock formations outside the Visitor Center and a section that John was brave enough to climb up:

After this initial stop we got on the Badlands Loops Road (Highway 240) and drove through the park. Here are some of the zillion photos as we made our way along the road.

As I mentioned whatever images I share they will not do justice to the magnificence of this National Park. Checking my photos after I took them and already anticipating the disappointment (ha!) I decided to take a video at one of the many glorious viewpoints on our drive through the park.

As I was about to take my video I cleverly (not so cleverly perhaps) decided to narrate the video using the placards (? not sure if that is the right term) at the viewpoint describing the view. Here is an example of a “placard”:

They were rather weather worn and difficult to read but once I started my narration I was kind of committed to complete it.

So here is the video, which I uploaded to YouTube in order to post, with my very monotone voice as I attempted to take the video and read the whole line of different “placards” before other people showed up at the viewpoint and blocked my view or wondered what the heck the crazy lady speed reading the “placards” was doing!

By the way it is VERY WINDY in the Badlands and the wind provides a soundtrack to my monotone awkward narration – ha!

Perhaps my lame videography provided you with a tiny bit better sense of the awesomeness of the Badlands.

Wind Cave National Park

Not much to report on this National Park. Unless you take one of the Park Ranger guided tours of a section of the Wind Caves there isn’t much to see. The wait for the guided tours was a couple hours. So we just looked around the Visitor Center, got some souveniers and got our National Park Passport stamped. We were wondering why it was free to get into the park and that is because you pay when you sign up for one of the tours.

In the Visitor Center they did have a cool diagram of the cave system.

So that’s our South Dakota National Park adventure!

We were tempted to pop over the Theodore Roosevelt National Park but it was quite a bit away and we’d already been to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial on the trip so far (next post).

Postscript

After I posted this post I discovered that John had taken a video on his phone also at Badlands National Park at the same viewpoint but without the narration. His video shows more of the 180+ view so I uploaded it to YouTube if you’d like to see it also. (Sorry it only has the wind as soundtrack no monotonous voice!)

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Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

28 thoughts on “Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks”

  1. You have had an amazing Summer of travels. The views are stunning, I hope funding for the Parks is maintained, they are a national treasure.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. So beautiful and I can’t wait to go there. The wind cave would be worthless for me. I love going in caves but I’d have to go alone with my hubby’s claustrophobic nature. Two hours was a long time to wait!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I looked at photos of some areas of the caves they had in the visitor center and your hubby most definitely would not like it. They even had a replica of a small tunnel (using a box) that you have to check if you can fit through before you go on that particular cave route!
      I highly recommend seeing Badlands National Park 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. He wouldn’t even make it to the cardboard box. When we went to Alaska, one place we stopped at had a large walk-in freezer that was below zero temperature. You walked in with a special coat they let you use. He couldn’t even do that. 🤣 But you know I did. I definitely want to see the Badlands National Park, love your pictures!

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  5. The Badlands are difficult to capture in photo, but I enjoyed your videos and the narration. I was amazed at the gradations in the rock on our drive through the Badlands, so cool. I hope you do get to Theodore Roosevelt National Park at some point; it’s a cool place.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. The thing I remember most about our Badlands visits – was how sharp & pointy the rocky surface was to walk on and try to sit on!…alongside the otherworldlyness of that vast land. BTW: did you guys do “Wall Drug”?
    😉

    Liked by 2 people

      1. LOL! I had no idea until I started researching! We just knew we wanted to see Mt. Rushmore and wondered if there was enough to make a vacation out of it. Turns out – yup! It has been wonderful seeing your pics!

        Liked by 1 person

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