backtrack to the badlands

Before we hit the Black Hills and our trip meltdown, we hit the Badlands -- but we didn't have a chance to post any of the pictures from the Badlands on. We're resting comfortably in a hotel room in Bozeman, Montana right now, freshly showered after a 5 day shower-fast. We have a few states and about 200 pictures waiting for their chance to shine in our humble little blog. If you know your geography, you know that not only have we hit the Badlands and the Black Hills, but we've also been through Yellowstone. Stay tuned for a few posts in the next day or so before we fall offline again as we trek out to the coast. And to save you the suspense: yes, we did see bears in Yellowstone. Yes, grizzlies. Yes, more than once. No, I wasn't mauled.

It's getting late here in the mountains, so here's a few pictures of the Badlands. Tomorrow we'll post some of our saga in the Black Hills and hopefully a monster post for Yellowstone. My favorite part of the Badlands wasn't what it's reputed for. We did stop and take pictures of the stark, striated cliffs and while they were impressive and otherworldly, we really didn't linger in those parts. They're vastly inhospitable. We loved the more temperate area near Sage Creek Campground - a FREE campground out in the middle of nowhere with a great vault toilet free of stink. I could spend a week in that area just walking around the hills without ever needing to go see the scenes the Badlands is known for. Before a lighting storm right over our heads, we climbed to the top of a hill and saw a beautiful sunset and avoided the first of many bison flops. Can you spot our van and tent?
































Coming up next: the Black Hills experience after we got a meltdown under our belts.