From the Silver Dog House: Badlands National Park

From the north, the approach to the Badlands National Park is through a National Grassland. You leave cultivated farm fields and drive into sea billows of grass as far as you can see. We came to an old homestead which had a small prairie dog town beside the parking lot. Our first view of Prairie Dogs was up close to very tame "dogs" sitting by their burrows.

Prairie Dogs are a large rodent that lives in extensive underground colonies. We later saw colonies that covered acres and extended for miles along both sides of the roadway and for hundreds of feet out across the landscape. It became evident why ranchers and farmers hated the critters. The colonies were nearly barren of vegetation as the "dogs" are plant eaters that eat everything right down to the ground from above and eat the roots from below. The boundary of the National Grassland is marked by a fence. In areas where there were prairie dog towns on the Grassland side of the fence the colony extended right under the fence onto private ranch land - but only for a short distance because the ranchers wage a battle of poison against the voracious plant eaters. The Park Service is trying to work with ranchers to manage the population. Long ago Black Footed Ferrets lived in the colonies with the "dogs" which were their food. With the reduction of the Prairie Dog populations by ranchers the Ferrets were nearly exterminated. Today there are efforts by the Park Service to reestablish the Ferret populations in the "dog towns".

The day we visited the Badlands was HOT. Thank goodness for the AC in "White One". It was a bright day with huge puffy clouds drifting across the sky to offer blessed shade occasionally. The temperatures hovered around 102* in the sun but under the shade from the clouds or rock formations it felt as though it dropped at least 20 degrees. But the sun was INTENSE, so we slathered on sun screen, and huddled under large brimmed hats when we ventured from the cab of the truck and the AC to walk a trail.

SURREAL is the only word that comes to mind to describe the works of God and nature that have created the earth and rock formations that are the Badlands. From white to grays to dark mustard yellow to maroon the formations of rock and earth were constantly changing as we rounded curves in the road. Mostly we drove along the edge of the plateau looking south across the eroded landscape of spires, ridges and mesas standing on the outwash plain below. In the distance we could see cattle and horses on the open range beyond the park boundaries. To the north were expanses of gently rolling grassland in stark contrast to the eroded landscape on the south. Sometimes the road wound down among the formations with towering spires, or rounded mounds, or flat topped mesas on all sides.

Wildlife was visible near and far. At one spot we passed a Park Service vehicle stopped on the side of the road. The occupants were out of the vehicle using binoculars to look across the valley in the foreground at a mesa. So we stopped and sure enough there were bighorn ewes with lambs on the top of the mesa high above the valley floor. We saw another herd of ewes that had to be shooed off the road, all were wearing radio collars. There were also Mule Deer, Pronghorns, Buffalo - or Bison - and of course lots of Prairie dogs. At one stop as we walked along one of the many boardwalks that were provided to keep people on trials and protect the soil from erosion we encountered a tiny rabbit that looked like a miniature cottontail, which we later learned was a pigmy cottontail. . Everywhere were signs warning of rattlesnakes if we were to leave the boardwalks - Husband pointed out that the boardwalks provided nice shady places for the rattlers to hide under. The native chipmunks, called Least Chipmunk where everywhere, seeking the shade often clinging to the sides of cliffs or rocks. They were about the cutest thing I had ever seen. They were more gray in color than our Eastern chipmunk but they were TINY with much longer tails. I was never able to find one that stood still long enough to have his picture taken.

We did not get an early start and if we ever do this again we will start very early in the morning - at dawn. We would beat some of the heat and have better light for photography. I think the east gate is the best place to start your exploration. Here you are closest to the highest rock formations and you can walk right out among them. At the west end of the park you are farther from the rim of the valley below or down in the valley where the formations are less craggy, but never the less still interesting as the color is vivid with yellows and reds below gray caps.

Late in the day the predicted thunder storm passed to the west of us going north. We watched it approaching while we sat on a bench at the end of a long boardwalk, in the grasslands with its cooling breeze blowing across the acres of grass. The tail end of the storm caught us with light rain as we walked back to the truck.