More from the Badlands.....

Buffalo Gap National Grasslands is the second largest Grasslands in the nation. As you can see from the pictures, lots of green when traveling along the country road...it is very remote out here. Very peaceful too. Talk about wide open space! There is a Visitor Center in Wall, but we did not go. For more information, click here. We were looking for a good place to ride bikes safely, but did not find anything suitable for us.

Buffalo Gap National Grasslands

cattle grazing in the Grasslands

the Badlands wall straight ahead...extends 65 miles

There are several hiking trails in the Badlands. The longest trail in the park is the Castle Trail, which is a 10 mile round trip, or 5 miles if someone picks you up in the parking lot halfway through. One of the first rules of hiking is to know your limits. I KNOW I can't hike 10 miles in the heat with the sun beating down, so I passed on this one. Tom hiked this solo, and I was to pick him up at the half-way point. I was a little nervous, because another rule of thumb is don't hike alone. We had good walkie talkies (GMRS radios), but we lost touch once the rock formations got in the way. Ugh! Good thing we had a backup plan for pickup. Tom had figured about 3 hrs, between adding on another short trail, and taking pictures....so I knew when to meet him in the other parking lot across the park. He had a great time, and some excitement. He heard a rattle and looked down, and realized he just walked past a rattlesnake. EEKS! I'm pretty sure he was happy he didn't have me along on this one...hahah.

Start of the trail

Watch out for snakes!

have fun...stay in touch

that was a great hike!

A great bonus feature of our campground (Badlands/White River KOA) is actually the country road across the street. From it, we can bike, or watch the owls, or the sunset over the Badlands. The road is a little hilly, but so worth it. Its very peaceful riding (except for me complaining about the hills...hahaha), and the views nice!

uphill is a killer

view from our hill

great biking

really green fields!

isn't this fun?

We even spotted baby owls one day! They were so much fun to watch....peeking their heads out from around the leaves, and doing the head-bob thing. Funny little guys! There were about 4 or 5 of them.

heads swivel nicely!

the mom?

we see you little guys

For our evening entertainment, we have been doing things like watching sunsets over the Badlands. A couple of nights, we even drove in to the park (5 min. away) to check out the views there. This is one reason why we hardly have time to enjoy the outdoor TV! Between sunsets and star-gazing, our nightlife is quite busy! Hahaha

the homestead

prairie wildflowers

enjoying sunset views in the park

another sunset in the park

The weather is very changeable here...one minute its sunny,the next heavy rain clouds are in the sky. Most often, it blows over. You can pretty much see the weather coming. One night it was cloudy and rain was predicted, so we hung around the campfire reading our books. We weren't paying attention to the sky, since we assumed it would remain cloudy. Well, suddenly the rock formation directly across from our campsite began to glow....we turned around and saw the most beautiful sky! Took a bunch of pictures from the driveway of the campground...you can see the White River, the Badlands, and our country road across the street. I guess it caught other campers by surprise as well, because before I knew it, people were running up the drive to take pics of this most amazing sky!

the blazing rock wall view from our chairs by the campfire..the tip to turn around and look at the sunset!!

view of sunset over our hill at the campground 

spectacular sunset view over the White River

sunset over the Badlands

awesome sunset view from the campground

Another night, we were lounging around the campfire with our lounge chairs reclined back all the way...it was pretty cool out so the fire felt good. The stars were amazing. I have never seen so many stars in my life! Not only when looking "up", but close to the horizon as well. It was like being in a planetarium! I know....our nightlife is just wild and crazy, huh?

A national park...the perfect place to celebrate turning 62! Time for a Golden Age Passport!!

Getting a Golden Age Passport to the National Parks!

Paperwork!

Here it is!!

We were going to hike again on Tom's birthday, but since it was so hot and sunny, decided to take the Sage Creek Rim Road again to check out the buffalo again.

Sage Creek Road...a beauty

Buffalo

Bird hitching a ride

These guys are huge

Great cloud formations

There are only a few places to eat around here, and we wanted to have lunch or dinner out to celebrate Tom's big birthday. The Cedar Pass Lodge/Gift Shop/Dining in the Nat'l Park, or Wagon Wheel Bar and Grill, in town near the grocery store seemed to be our only options. Since we weren't too far from Wall during our morning drive, we decided to go back to Wall Drug.

The Wagon Wheel....in town....or Wall Drug?

Cell service! A bonus at the Wall Drug Cafe!!

birthday lunch out

fancy!

not too bad

a happening place!

On our drive back "home" from Wall, some animals stood up to wish Tom a happy birthday (hahah).

Happy Birthday Tom - from the Big Horn Sheep

Happy Birthday from the Antelope too!

We also saw some ominous dark rain clouds moving in, but we could see it was spotty. The rest of the sky was blue. We did manage to skirt the weather in the park and campground, but we weren't so lucky in Wall! haha.

small storm

clouds were like cotton

this was a threatening sky 

storm a few miles away

 And.... a birthday surprise from the National Park gift shop! I was able to shop alone the day Tom was on his solo hike! A walking stick and a book on birds! Perfect!!

Happy 62nd!! Can you even believe it?

On our last night here in the Badlands(Tom's birthday)...another big surprise. The weather cooperated and the ranger-led evening program and night sky program was held! It was one of the first programs of the season, so we were lucky with out timing. It was unbelievable!! It reminded me a little of Hayden Planetarium (NYC), looking up and seeing all the stars, but the difference was we were outside in the Badlands-looking at real stars. The sky was SPECTACULAR.....really! The ranger pointed out several planets, stars and constellations using a green laser pen. At the end of the program, we could view Jupiter and Saturn from the telescopes that were set up. Tom has done this with his scope in our backyard, and taken pictures magically with his computer attached...so I am a little spoiled with the telescope experience....but the sky!!! It was amazing!!!! I asked about the "moving stars" we had seen, and it turns out they were satellites. We weren't sure if we were seeing shooting stars, meteors, or aliens-haha. There are lots of satellites out there, and we saw a few!! For more information on the Badlands Night Sky program, click here. 

another flora shot