Truly. I know that The Badlands National Park is a great American destination and all the adjectives and superlatives have been applied. They are indeed: otherworldly, eerie, forbidding, inhospitable, spiritual and alien. We spent two days here. The wind shifted direction and the heavy smoke and haze from the Montana wildfires blew away and the brilliant sunshine revealed the Badland wall in all its stark beauty. We drove the wildlife loop road and gazed at prairie dogs by the dozens, mountain goats creating traffic jams in the road, and had our first glimpse of the majestic Bison.
My favorite experience was our choice to get out of the car and hike the Castle and Medicine Root Trail. It was to be the first hike of our road trip and it was challenging as well as deeply satisfying to walk among the grasslands and the jagged formations, devoid of automobiles and people. Just the prairie and the monolithic presence of stone and the wind in our ears. Actually, a 26 mph wind that initially was at our backs and upon return was pushing us one step back for every step taken forward. It was a 9 miler and Mark and I both went into our own little Zen world, thirsty and weary and wondering how much further was it? The beers that evening never tasted so good and well-deserved. The bounty of a Good Hike.
I think what is most special about the Badlands it its stark contrast to the landscape that comes before it when traveling west. The topography is so strange that your brain fumbles for a metaphor to grasp the unfamiliar. For me, it called to mind the mud castles I made on the Jersey shore as a child. It was as if I’d been shrunk down and another alien species had created these playthings for me to gasp “oh” at. There was a distinct feeling that I had stumbled upon them and they were meant just for me.