Badass Badlands

I had to steal that title from a friend. This is the first time Niall and I have visited South Dakota. The natural world changed drastically heading into this state from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. We were blown away.

We stayed in the middle of the Badlands National Park, where there’s one of the world’s richest fossil beds. This is what their website says, “Deposition of sediments began 69 million years ago when an ancient sea stretched across what is now the Great Plains. After the sea retreated, successive land environments, including rivers and flood plains, continued to deposit sediments. Although the major period of deposition ended 28 million years ago, significant erosion of the Badlands did not begin until a mere half a million years ago. Erosion continues to carve the Badlands buttes today. Eventually, the Badlands will completely erode away.”

For thousands of years, Native Americans (primarily the Lakota Sioux, followed by the Arikara) used this land as hunting grounds. There were stream banks that have now eroded away where their hunting tools have been found. Toward the end of the 19th century, homesteaders moved in.  This is after the U.S. government took the land from the Native Americans and pushed them onto reservations. The Wounded Knee Massacre took place close to the Badlands.  I’ve been thinking of all the heartbreak and struggle that occurred here and am amazed at the weighty peaceful nature of the place.
We have seen the greatest amount of wildlife so far in South Dakota – so I love it here. In the Badlands, we saw bighorn sheep, small and silver chipmunks, prairie dogs, birds who sing the sweetest songs, bluebirds, and three bison off in the distance…






These lands are sacred  - you just feel it when you are there. It’s an honor to be able to visit.