The Badlands

Travelling the rugged landscape of south western So. Dakota, one can imagine the early settlers and indigenous people inhabiting this area and wonder how they survived. Just getting over these terrains would have been exhausting. But if not for these brave men and women these areas would never have been discovered. And preserving them for the many generations to come was one of the greatest acts of our government. The Badlands rise from the flat earth as you approach this area from the east and appear as simple buttes until you get closer.  Badlands National Park can best be described as “otherworldly.” Centuries of flowing water carved out what you see in pictures which do not capture the vastness and intensity of the landscape.  Traveling through you find behind one mountain a vast deep canyon full of trees which is amazing considering the vast majority is desert. Along the roadway you can spot all the prairie dogs popping their little dead up out from their tunnel holes.  Much like that old game of “wack a mole.”  If travels take you to this area, I highly recommend exploring this beauty.  However, you need to be very aware and careful.  To exit the park, we chose the gravel road to see the prairie dog village, prong horn, sheep, and bison. This is where our Jeep’s windshield took a rock hit. Our guess is that the rock came from the vehicle approaching us from the opposite direction as no one was in front of us. The crack started small as they do and by the time we arrived back at our camp, it was halfway across the glass.  We connected with our insurance company and we researched “Safelite repair, Safelite replace.”  The only caveat was the closest repair place was only about an hour outside of our NEXT camp location in Hot Springs, SD.  Since Rapid City, SD. was still an hour away we decided to make a day of it and take in Deadwood and Sturgis too.  In the end we got a brand-new windshield and had a great little excursion.