G.A.S.P.

After breakfast, I filled my backpack hydration unit with about 90 ounces of Wall Drug Store ice water and headed South into Badlands National Park. This was an excellent place to ride a bicycle. Since I was staying two nights in the same campground, I was traveling very light and the hills were no problem. The main road through the Park is a loop from the Wall exit of I-90 to the Cactus Flat exit about 20 miles to the East. Since the Park road goes up, down and around a lot, it is about 40 miles from one exit to the other. The Badlands are awesome. The peaks are more sharp and eerie looking than those in the North Dakota badland of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. They are also more colorful. There are places where you can see the dark shale layer (from 60 million years ago), the yellow soil layer (from 60 to 35 million years ago), the red soil layer (from 35 to 23 million years ago) and more recent (I guess it’s all relative) bands of whites and grays from volcanic activity as the Rocky Mountains were pushed up just a few hundred miles to the West.

According to geologists, this area was a wetland paradise for mammals 35 million years ago, a woodland paradise for other mammals 30 million years ago, and a prairie paradise for yet other mammals beginning as long ago as 23 million years. As you might imagine, this is one of the richest areas in the world for finding fossil remains of ancient mammal life. This record of life began to be exposed only in the last million years or so as mountains rose in the west and rivers began flowing eastward and carrying away soft sediment. Over time, wind and rain took their toll on the deposits until only the hardest sandstone remained. This is what we see today – the craggy, sharp, eerie remains of what was deposited over the last 60 million years. I am including some of my favorite photos, including one that shows all that the I-90 traveler is able to see of the Badlands as he whizzes by at 75 mph. This isn’t as glamorous as Yellowstone, but for people traveling from the East, it’s right on the way. So stop and visit for a few hours; you’ll be glad you did. It’s ruggedly beautiful in this place. Click on the button for more photos:

In the middle of the Park, I saw two touring bicyclists coming my way, so I pulled over to talk. When I called out "Where are you folks from?", the young woman in front responded "Switzerland." (I guess this makes my boat trip to Isle Royale look pretty pale in comparison.) They turned out to be a couple, maybe college age, who are taking three months to bicycle from New York to San Francisco. They left New York on June 2, so are doing well time-wise. They are on their way to Yellowstone. Since they are going to San Francisco, I also suggested Yosemite.

I learned one important geography fact while reading the Badlands Park brochure. I found that the base gray-black shale (the 60 million year old stuff) is called Pierre and is pronounced "peer." I then asked a native of South Dakota at the Visitor Center to pronounce the name of the State Capital of South Dakota. She said "peer." For 40 or more years, I have pronounced this State Capital as if it were a Frenchman’s name, and now find that I have been wrong all this time. I am now one of about three people outside of South Dakota who knows this.