Nebraska National Forest encompasses an area in northwestern Nebraska that features a set of ridges and rocky hills covered in Ponderosa Pines known as the Pine Ridge Escarpment. When people think of the Great Plains they think of flatland, farms and fields stretching on like an ocean of tall grass or wheat wafting in the breeze and they are right however hidden amongst these vast expanses of nothing are treasures too many of us either ignore or have no knowledge of. So when I woke up that morning after having driven up to near Chadron from Denver, driven through Chadron State park to the National Forest road and set up a tent for a few hours sleep I was floored by what I saw. The sun just starting to change the color of the sky from that deep navy to a brighter blue with bands of oranges and indigos, the moon still hung high in the east a crescent looking down at us, rocky cliffs one of which we were just uphill from, trees in clumps here and there, a fire years past having thinned the area, and a vast expanse to the north down below us. The subtle beauty of where we’d camped was what stuck with me, it reminded me of places I’d been to in Kansas that make up for a lack of grandiosity with a beauty that feels more exclusive. There’s something to knowing you’re taking in a spot that not many people are aware of and when or if you let people know about it they’ll say you’re full of it, but deep down you know that if given the chance for them to see what you saw they’d understand whole heartedly.
It had been quite some time since I had been to the Badlands of South Dakota, almost 8 years in fact and though I’d been back to the black hills during the interim I’d longed to once again set foot in that alien landscape yet time and again couldn’t make it work or see a plan through so when the idea formed to travel to the Badlands, Black Hills and Devils Tower I jumped at the chance. Loaded up my car with our gear and headed off toward a state I very rarely ever thought of in my younger days as somewhere I’d intend to go. But over the last couple of years I’ve found in Nebraska quite a few places with that rare subtle beauty that is a nice contrast to the more grandiose. Which in this instance was forthcoming.
I don’t know from just how far away we could glimpse the wall but it seemed like it took forever to get to and simultaneously no time at all, as if time stopped and jumped us forward without us even realizing it. That’s what seeing it does to you, you pay so little attention to where you are and what you’re doing and so much to what lies ahead. If you ever get the chance to drive to the Badlands do it from the south, as long as the Pine Ridge Reservation is open and allowing travellers through which despite the occasional COVID checkpoint it was, the drive up to the Badlands is astonishing. It feels like you can see it from forever away and as you get closer it looms larger and larger on the horizon. A wall of some strange rocks, of colors not meant to be jutting out of the prairie and shapes that boggle the mind with a vastness that is incomprehensible. An incredible alien landscape that feels as if it would be more at home 20000 leagues under the sea with ocean beasts swimming by, not the beasts of the plains roaming through grazing.
As you wind up the road carving through the center and climb atop the plateau above the formations there are moments you could forget entirely where you are and assume you’ve been transported to the surface of the moon surrounded by spires and peaks of red, gray, brown and tan and seemingly devoid of life. Eventually you exit these “canyons” and see the buffalo grass prairie that surrounds you reminding you that yes, you are in South Dakota in the middle of the plains and yes that’s a herd of bison roaming about in the distance. Far off to the south you can see the plains and grassland stretch on forever, look north and see the same it is only this stretch, this band east and west that seemingly roll on endlessly where you can see the beautiful alien formations. I’ve been to badlands in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Kansas and Montana but even the biggest of those don’t compare to the vastness and seeming endlessness of these. They are truly one of the wonders of North America, something I think everyone in their life should see before exiting stage right.
Mountains of this beautiful sedimentary rock, spires, hoodoos, monoliths everywhere you look and when it seemed as though you’d seen all of it more emerged into view, a staggering place full of wonder to say the least. With most of the National Parks I’ve been to there is a common theme, Time, it ticks away and little by little, bit by bit these places form, either through slow but massive upheaval, or the wind and rain etching away the shapes from a larger more blank canvas or even a river silt full and slowly grinding away rock until it has dug so deep that a map of geologic history billions of years in the making is exposed to view. Badlands National Park is an exquisite example of time slowly changing the landscape from the bottom of an ocean to a swamp and eventually prairie all the while exposing examples of what lies beneath.
Green grass flows off and up hills of yellow, reds purples and grays, when I say the colors are such that your mind can barely comprehend I mean it, they don’t belong in an ocean of green grass in the middle of the Great Plains at least not in the rocks that stick out from the soil and the cliffs, the dirt itself, perhaps it would be more appropriate if the colors were experienced through blooming flowers yet no this rock is what showcases it all. Trails lead to the tops of some of the hills, so you can be amongst the mustard colored mounds and see back to the spiny peaks.
Eventually it was time to leave this place and we drove onward out of the park toward Wall, South Dakota and up into the wide open prairie that surrounds the park. But not before one final cruise through an ocean of sediment and spires. My previous time here I’d only stopped briefly and mainly drove through it which is a perfectly fine idea especially on a day as hot as it had reached back then touching triple digits if my mind doesn’t betray me. This time it was in the 70s and 80s during our trip so lingering was much easier to do. There are parks all over like this one that are perfectly usable as drive through National Parks, with only brief stops to look out from the occasional vista and there is nothing wrong with doing that, I feel as if it gives people an option they may not have otherwise and makes a place as ludicrously mind bending as this accessible. However getting out into the Badlands on the trails is an experience you’ll never forget.
On the way out we hit a spot of stopped traffic near one of the exits from the park and as I began to question why everyone was stopped I saw the culprit a large bull bison just standing in the road looking at the cars patiently waiting for him to finish crossing. A few minutes passed and he started meandering to the western side of the road and began grazing again. As we rolled past the ticket shack we saw the rest of the herd grazing over to the east within the boundary of the park, some laying in the grass some running around, majestic beasts of the plains living free and wild.
We had made a pit-stop not long after arriving that morning and stopping at Big Badlands Overlook, we headed north out of the park toward I-90 crossed over the interstate and stopped at a point of interest just across the highway. The Minuteman Missle National Historic Site, a museum detailing the American nuclear weapons program and the buildup of the national arsenal across the vast openness of the Great Plains. Though not above a silo the site detailed where you could tour a control building and a silo itself however they were not conducting tours as such so we enjoyed a bit of air conditioning watched a chunk of the movie they were playing about the program and wandered through the museum itself before heading back down into and through the Badlands. Our next target was Rapid City followed quickly by the Black Hills and a few jewels found within. A story for another day.
Wandering Toto
– 2021
The Wandering Toto 