Dakotas Trip – Badlands National Park

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 …

Actual color

And sunrise …

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.

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 …

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.

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."

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. 

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.

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.

Map: National Park Service

Along the way, we saw a wide variety of geologic forms ...

View across the valley

... and a few animals as well, including Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep …

Napping Bighorn Sheep

… ewes and kids ...

The nursery

… on a ridge …

A good view of them

… in front of a valley edged by a beautiful striated mountain in the distance …

And a good view for them

These fantastic buttes, mesas and mountains are largely the result of two basic geologic processes: deposition and erosion.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

Knife-edge

Badlands is most beautiful at sunset …  

End of the day

…when the mountains turn from light pink to vibrant red …

Progression

… and at sunrise …

The next morning

… that brings out the oranges and yellows …

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.

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. 

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). 

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.

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. 

Adorable

Fortunately, we encountered some exquisite rams the next morning when we went on a sunrise drive.

A nice ram!

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).

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Looks like he's meditating

During our trip we also saw a number of Mule Deer – all does and almost all with fawns ...

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 ...

So cute

Besides the Western Meadowlarks …

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 …

Some nice color

… and some Swallows (both Cliff and Barn) throughout the Park …

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.

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. 

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. 

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!

Ah, the prairie!

Trip date: July 20-25, 2018