Badlands National Park

Hey everyone!
Well, we made it through our first national park! We might be a bit more red than when we started, but that's okay. So Badlands, named by both the Indians and the French as bad lands for farming and settlement, are AWESOME lands to camp in. We drove in around mid day on Saturday, and were completely stunned by the landscape. I don't know if any of you have seen pictures of the badlands, but if not, I suggest googling it until I can get some pictures up, its insane. The landscape is essentially a desert on top of a prairie, and the arid areas are full of giant sandstone formations. I don't even know how to describe it correctly, it was just incredible. So when we got to the visitors center, we talked to a nice ranger that happened to be from Buffalo, NY, and we decided to stay in a designated camping area rather than camp in the backcountry due to a lack of water, which we felt was pretty important. We set up camp, and then went for a hike. That first day we hiked about 2 or 3 miles, including a rediculous quarter mile hike that takes almost an hour to do because its a quarter mile straight up a formation wall, and on Sunday we hiked a tough 12 miles in the heat. Smart? Probably not.. but totally worth the burning sensation I have in the crease of my elbow right now. Let me tell you, I seriously discourage ignoring the skin behind the knees and elbows when applying sunscreen, just take my word for it. Anyways, aside from establishing our base burn, we saw lots of cool birds that Elijah can talk more about because I've already forgotten what they were, deer, and strangely enough, we saw a lot of bunnies? I don't know, but they were adorable. We saw a few snakes, which was a little frightening since rattlesnakes are a concern in the grassy areas. At camp, we set up Elijah's new tent that is made of mesh, with a solid rain flap to go over it. Since it was not going to rain either night, we slept with the rain flap off and were able to watch the amazing display of stars that the badlands are famous for from within our tent before we went to sleep.

So early Sunday morning, we heard sirens and saw a bunch of ambulances flying past our campsite. Later when we went into a nearby town for gas, we got the scoop from the always nice locals. Apparently, two deputies were chasing some outlaw (oh yeah, we're in the West for sure) through the park, and one of the deputy's car flipped. They said that the outlaw drove through two baricades, and at one point threw his baby out the window. I think they ended up getting him, and the deputy is going to be okay. It was crazy, its like the wild wild west out here. Speaking of which, we left today and stopped for breakfast in the town of Wall, SD, a good old western town with a population of around 300. We saw some awesome looking cowboys buying stuff from the leather store, and if I had any less dignity, I would have taken a picture of him.

After Wall, we went to Mount Rushmore which was, like most things, nothing like the pictures. But don't worry, I took too many pictures anyway. On the way out we saw a women wearing spurs, and we stared rather rudely.

We are now headed to Bighorn National Forest for the night. This will be my first real backpacking experience, meaning we will be leaving the car and hiking in with all of our gear on our backs. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous, and very conscious of the sunburn on my shoulders that has to hold about 50 liters of weight in a few hours. Oh well, it will be an experience at the least. Tomorrow, we head out to Yellowstone! I hope I don't buy out the ENTIRE giftshop... but I might. Ill let you know next time. I won't be able to post pictures until we get to Idaho in a week, but we'll try to post when we can.

Laura