Thursday, May 22, 2008

Thursday Thirteen

I've been giving a lot of thought this week as to where we were last year at this time. We'd begun our cross country trip, 2 1/2 weeks to go as far west as we could go. It was an awesome trip, once in a lifetime. So, to honor it, I'm going to post 13 pictures from what I was doing a year ago.
13 Pictures from the Badlands of South Dakota. I still haven't gotten around to editing or making an album for them, but I will.

1.  Sneaking in the Badlands from the back door.  Apparently, my map reading 'shortcut' took us through a gravel outer road around the southern edge of Badland's National Park.  I was a little worried there for a while, especially when it started to rain.  But we were ok.


Daddy and 17 month old Christopher on the edge of the Badlands.  

2.  Rain washes the dust away. Sneaking a view of the edge of the Badlands park.  


Wow. 

3.  Chris picks a souvenir.  We had gone into the Visitors Center, and had lunch in their little shop. We were avoiding the crowds being there before summer crowds showed up.  I was introduced to Indian Fry Bread - both Chris and I loved it!   And as we were leaving, Chris picked up a stuffed Prairie Dog off the shelf in the gift shop while we were shopping for souvenirs and Takes Off.  He ran.  It was rather hysterical, so we looked up that giggling shop girl, and told her we were just going to have to buy the Prairie Dog too.  He doesn't ask for much.  So why not grant his wish, and get him a stuffed prairie dog.  He held on to it for the rest of the day, every time we got in the car, he'd grunt, grab it, and giggle.  


His prairie dog makes him happy. 

 4. View haloo.  Now we really got sight seeing in the Badlands.  After our lunch, which was on the low end of the park, we were able to get driving, closer to the points.  


The recent rain really made the grass look green, we were really luck, it's all shades of brown by the end of summer. 

5.  Funny dog bones.  We stopped at a boardwalk path.  Turns out it was a fossil trail or bone walk.  It was very quiet, as we all walked and read.  Chris was getting tired.  It was windy so we tried to cover him up a bit.  But he found Pooh.  He has this keychain of Winnie the Pooh that plays an annoying music.  And I don't even hear it anymore, but when we were out there, in the quiet, when suddenly the only noise was that musical Pooh.  It spooked me.  Still he liked seeing the dog bones, at least it was a fossilized ancient dog relative.  


6.  Mommy and the View - I love this shot and how the lines of sediment vary, it's Awesome.  


7.  Prairie Dog.   The tops of the badlands are prairie.  So the prairie dogs can be found making neighborhoods on top. 


Aren't they cute?!

8.  Mommy and the Big Mounds - I climbed a Mound.  One path that we were driving along went through a layer of sediment that was very yellow, hard claylike.  It was beautiful.  I hopped out of the car and climbed up a way.  I'm scared of heights.  So getting up on his yellow mound took a certain of bravery.  


I conquer part of the yellow mound. 

9.  The Bighorn Sheep Family - We were driving around the Pinnacles and we saw a few cars pulled over, so I stopped and snapped a few pics as a pair of Bighorn Sheep as they hopped over a hill.   When we drove down and around the other side, we found more cars pulled over.  And we were able to get an even better view of these sheep.  Except with this better view, it was clear to us that there were Baby Bighorn Sheep.  They camouflage with the dusty background.  


Can you see the Baby Bighorn Sheep?  It's a family of 6!

10. Eric wanted to see some buffalo!  So we took another gravel road path to find some.  And find them we did.  


Can you spot both buffalo?

11.  Prairie Dog Town - we found this too.  And they were Right up next to the car.  This one was chirping at us, he had a lot to say about us invading.
 

I didn't even get out of the car to make this picture. 

12.  My favorite buffalo shot.   There weren't fences on this barren stretch of road, so we stayed close to the car.   I love the look of this prairie.  It reminds me of a painting.

Using the Zoom lens I got this buffalo.  Wow.  

13. Back home again in our hotel.  Christopher discovered a new trick, playing in the cabinet.  


This boy still had a lot of energy, so we went for an evening swim and called it a day.  
The Badlands were Bad - like Micheal Jackson Awesome Bad!  And I can't wait to go back. 

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