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| A Bighorn Sheep has found a comfy (?) spot |
Badlands National Park was an “add on” to the trip to the
Dakotas that Caty put together – and it might have been the best part. I had
been there once before but didn’t really recall the broad sweep of the place.
It is best viewed at sunset …
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| Actual color |
And sunrise …
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| First light |
And it did not disappoint.
This time we stayed at lodging IN the park, which is always what we prefer (neither Theodore Roosevelt nor Wind Cave have in-park accommodations). We stayed a Cedar Pass Lodge in a newly renovated cabin.
When
we arrived at the park at 4:00 p.m. (well-planned to avoid the heat and flat
light of the middle of the day) our room wasn’t
ready yet, so we headed out for a drive. We didn’t actually check in until
around 9:00 p.m. and we left pretty early in the morning, so we didn’t get to
enjoy all the cabin had to offer.
I wish we had been there long enough to enjoy
a picnic on the table out the back door. But, we seldom stay at our lodging
very long.
Anyway, the room was lovely, big with comfy beds and pretty
southwestern décor. The only thing I didn’t like was the cheap laminate floors.
I suspect they will regret that choice later because I don’t think those floors
will last.
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| Cute! |
The Cedar Pass Lodge is less remote than I had hoped – it is
right inside the Park next to the very busy Visitor Center. But, it is still convenient
to everything.
But about the Park …
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| Yellow Mounds |
Badlands National Park protects 242,756 acres of sharply eroded
buttes and pinnacles and the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in
the U.S. The National Park Service manages most of the park. The South Unit/Stronghold Area is co-managed with the Oglala Lakota tribe.
We
visited the entire park, including a very quick stop at the White River Overlook in the
South Unit on our way out.
Authorized as Badlands National Monument in 1929, the Park was not
actually established until 1939. Badlands was re-designated a National Park in 1978.
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| View of striated hills |
For 11,000 years, Native Americans have used the Badlands for hunting. The early paleo-Indians were followed by the Arikara people, who are the ancestors of the current-day Three Affiliated Tribes that live in North Dakota.
Archaeological records combined with oral
traditions indicate that these people camped in secluded valleys where freshwater and game were available year-round. Eroding out of the stream banks today
are the rocks and charcoal of their campfires, as well as the arrowheads and
tools they used to butcher bison, rabbits and other game. After these peoples
came the Lakota Sioux, who still live there.
Extreme temperatures, lack of
water and exposed rugged terrain led the Lakota to call the area "mako
sica" or "land bad." French-Canadian fur trappers called it
"les mauvais terres pour traverse," or "bad lands to travel
through."
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| Evidence of erosion |
Badlands, like most of the other places we visited, is rich in fossils. In fact, the White River Badlands contain the richest deposits of Oligocene mammals known, providing a glimpse of life in the area 33 million years ago. And, fossils seem pretty easy to find in the crumbly rock.
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| Sharp peaks |
Although I didn’t go fossil hunting, I did test a hillside and was shocked at how easily it came apart in my hand. It’s hard to believe that any of the buttes are still standing.
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| Found by a seven-year-old; Photo: NPS |
The Visitor Center has instructions for anyone finding a fossil that
includes a promise to post a picture of the finder on their bulletin board. The
bulletin board has at least 50 photos from 2018, most of them children. How
cool is that?
There is even an intact skull of a small prehistoric
saber-toothed cat-like creature that a seven-year-old girl found just behind the
Visitor Center.
Among the other fossils that have been found in the Park are
prehistoric crocodiles, entelodonts (sort
of a wolf/pig), oreodonts (sort of a dog/pig), creodonts (carnivorous cat-like
creatures), rhinos, ground squirrels, mice, horses, camels, turtles and
seashells. There is an active “Fossil Prep Lab” in the Visitor Center where paleontologists
are cleaning and identifying fossils. It is a great place for children with an
interest in pre-history and fossil-hunting.
You may have noticed that none of the places we visited have
found dinosaur fossils – just pre-dinosaur aquatic animals and post-dinosaur
mammals. That’s because most of this area was underwater during the age of
dinosaurs.
Badlands also has a scenic “loop” road. It is only a loop if
you include some roads not inside the Park and I-90 that runs north of the Park.
But, there is about 20 miles of glorious road through the Park.
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| Map: National Park Service |
Along the way, we saw a wide variety of geologic forms ...
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| View across the valley |
... and a few animals as well,
including Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep …
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| Napping Bighorn Sheep |
… ewes and kids ...
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| The nursery |
… on a ridge …
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| A good view of them |
… in front of a valley edged by a beautiful striated mountain in the distance …
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| And a good view for them |
These fantastic buttes, mesas and mountains are largely the
result of two basic geologic processes: deposition and erosion.
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| Despite being very soft, these formations are still standing |
The sedimentary rock layers were deposited during the late
Cretaceous Period 75-67 million years ago, throughout the Late Eocene 37-34
million years ago and the Oligocene Epochs 34-26 million years ago. Different environments
-- ocean, savannah, tropical swamps, subtropical forests and open woodland with
meandering rivers -- caused different sand, silt and clay sediments to
accumulate at different times, thus creating distinct layers, also called
formations.
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| Striped hills |
The formations also include volcanic ash blown in from other areas
to the west. An especially thick layer known as the Rockyford Ash that was deposited
30 million years ago is used as a mapping marker for geologists.
One very interesting area is the Yellow Mounds, formed when
an ancient ocean drained away with the uplift of the Black Hills and Rocky
Mountains, exposing the black ocean mud to air. The upper layers were weathered
into a yellow soil. It’s really pretty as the sun starts to set.
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| Yellow hills |
Erosion began in the Badlands about 500,000 years ago when
the Cheyenne River captured streams and rivers flowing from the Black Hills
into the region. Before 500,000 years ago, streams and rivers carried sediments
from the Black Hills INTO the area, building the rock layers; now the streams
started carrying sediment AWAY. Modern rivers cut down through the relatively
soft rock layers, carving fantastic shapes into what had once been a flat
floodplain.
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| A finger in the blue, blue sky |
The Badlands erode at about one inch per year, suggesting that they will erode away completely in another 500,000 years, giving them a life span of just one million years. That’s a short time from a geologic perspective.
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| Knife-edge |
Badlands is most beautiful at sunset …
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| End of the day |
…when the mountains turn from light pink to vibrant red …
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| Progression |
… and at sunrise …
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| The next morning |
… that brings out the oranges and yellows …
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| Another progression |
Although not the feature you tend to notice first, Badlands protects a huge mixed grass prairie. Two-foot tall western wheatgrass is the predominant grass in
an area that includes prairie coneflower, white milkwort, needle-and-thread
grass and prairie dropseed.
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| The grass color mirrors the hills |
Native grasses serve as important food sources for
many species of wildlife, from Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs to American Bison and Pronghorn. We never saw the Bison or any Pronghorn (we weren’t really looking
for them) but saw many Prairie Dogs (I didn’t photograph any).
We were
looking but failed to see Black-Footed Ferrets.
Badlands was one of the first
places where these almost-extinct animals were reintroduced into the wild. If I ever see – and photograph one – I will
talk about them more extensively.
Historically, grasslands were North America's most extensive
biome, but today most of the prairie has been altered by agriculture or
development.
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| Prairie meets badlands |
As part of its preservation efforts, the National Park Service
personnel manage non-native species and reintroduce native species where they
have been extirpated.
On our first day in the park, we took a drive and had a picnic off Conata Road (in the area where the Black-Footed Ferrets live).
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| Western Meadowlark; Photo: Caty Stevens |
The white
sandy picnic area circles a butte. The sand is so white that it gives an
illusion of a fog rising from the ground – a little weird to process.
While we
were eating, we were entertained by Western Meadowlarks, which we
assume were recent fledglings because they seemed to enjoy hopping more than
flying. One even had dinner with us. He brought his own.
We were also entertained by an exceptionally exuberant Least
Chipmunk that jumped and ran and frolicked around the picnic area. I have seen many
Least Chipmunks, but this is the first that I have ever seen with this light
coloration, a response to the light-colored rock in Badlands National Park.
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| A very pale (and rambunctious) Least Chipmunk |
That evening we also had some great views of the Rocky
Mountain Bighorn Sheep “nursery” that I posted above. There were at least five females and
seven kids on the cliff face, but no rams.
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| Adorable |
Fortunately, we encountered some
exquisite rams the next morning when we went on a sunrise drive.
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| A nice ram! |
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| A pretty boy |
Native to North America, Bighorn Sheep are (obviously) named
for their large horns, which can weigh up to 30 lbs., reaching 10 percent of an
adult males’ body weight.
Ewes (females) also have horns, but they are shorter and
less curved.
Shortly after birth, the Kids begin to grow their horns. I know
many people are confused about horns vs. antlers.
Moose, Deer, Caribou and Elk have antlers, which grow and fall off every year and are usually found only in
males (Caribou being the exception; males and females both grow antlers).
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| Shiras Moose, Rocky Mountain Mule Deer, Caribou and Rocky Mountain Elk |
Pronghorn, Bison, Mountain Goats and Bighorn Sheep have horns, which grow
continuously through their lifetimes, and are found on both sexes, although the
males’ horns grow much larger.
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| Pronghorn, American Bison, Mountain Goat and Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep |
Bighorn Sheep are related to Dall Sheep and Stone Sheep, which I have seen in Alaska and Canada, respectively,
and the Siberian Snow Sheep, which I haven’t seen. Their ancestors crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Siberia into Alaska about 750,000 years ago and spread through western North America as far south as Baja California and northwestern mainland Mexico.
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| Dall and Stone Sheep |
The
population in North America peaked in the millions but, by 1900, the population
had decreased to only a several thousand because of overhunting and diseases introduced through European
livestock.
By the 1920’s, Bighorn Sheep were totally eliminated from Washington, Oregon, Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and part of Mexico.
Now, through better management and by transplanting sheep from healthy populations into vacant places, there are about 70,000 Bighorn Sheep in North America. There were four subspecies in North America, of which three are still extant.
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| Posturing |
The Badlands Bighorn, also called Audubon's Bighorn, occurred in North
Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska, but became extinct in 1925.
Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep (formerly California Bighorn Sheep), occur only in
the Sierra Nevada in California.
Desert Bighorn Sheep live throughout the
desert regions of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. Desert Bighorns
have three sub-subspecies: Nelson's, Mexican and Peninsular.
And, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep are found from British
Columbia to Arizona. This is the subspecies that lives in Badlands – and here
in Colorado. Although they are the same subspecies, the ones in Badlands are
slimmer and more distinctively marked than our beefier versions that tend to
live at higher, colder elevations.
Bighorn Sheep range in color from light brown to grayish or
dark, chocolate brown, with a white rump and lining on the backs of all four
legs. Males typically weigh 128-315 lbs., are 35-41 inches tall at the shoulder
and 63-73 inches long from the nose to the tail. Females are typically 75-201
lbs., 30-35 inches tall and 50-62 inches long.
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| A female (ewe) |
Bighorns from the Rocky Mountains can be much larger, with
males that occasionally exceed 500 lbs. and females that exceed 200 lbs.
Males have specially constructed skulls that protect the brain by absorbing the impact of the
clashes that occur when they fight during the rut.
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| Several angles |
All the Bighorns we saw at Badlands seemed very calm, most
likely because the Park has few of their natural predators. They just seemed be
enjoying the scenery and the beautiful morning sun.
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| Looks like he's meditating |
During our trip we also saw a number of Mule Deer – all does and
almost all with fawns ...
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| Baby and its mama |
We spent some time with two does and a fawn just after
sunset the first day – the pictures are a big grainy, but you can easily see
what a lovely scene it was ...
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| So cute |
Besides the Western Meadowlarks …
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| Looks like its molting |
… we didn’t see many birds, except some Western Kingbirds, Mountain Bluebirds and Spotted Towhees (plus some American Robins I didn't photograph) near our cabin …
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| Some nice color |
… and some Swallows (both Cliff and Barn) throughout the Park …
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| Barn Swallow with some fibers for its nest |
After we left the main Park, we took a little detour to the White
River Overlook in the South Unit/Stronghold District. This 133,300-acre area is
on tribal lands and is co-managed by the National Park Service and the Oglala
Lakota Tribe.
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| White River Overlook |
To get there, we drove past a number of ranches and even saw
a – somewhat scraggly – Coyote crossing the road and fields.
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| Apex predator on the prowl |
We also saw two
calves (one with its umbilical cord still attached) that had somehow gotten
outside the fence. No cows were nearby and the little guys both seemed very
frightened. We reported them to the rangers at the South Unit Visitor Center
and they actually took action right away.
The overlook was pretty but a bit washed out by the
mid-morning sun. It did give us a good look at a broad expanse of Badlands, illustrating
what difficult country this must be to live in.
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| South Unit |
There was a table set up at the
Overlook where several women and children were selling jewelry. The asked if we
were interested when we arrived and we told them we were not (I really don’t
need any more jewelry). Therefore, we were surprised when, just as we were
getting ready to pull out, one of the women came up behind us and knocked on
our car window. It scared me to death! I am not a big fan of aggressive souvenir
sales at scenic areas; it can actually deter me from stopping. I realize that
this is how they make their living, but it still annoys me.
After Stronghold, we headed to Nebraska and home. That’s the
next post!
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| Ah, the prairie! |
Trip date: July 20-25, 2018
