Badlands

Dart was in the Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  The Badlands National Park has the largest expanse of protected prairie in the National Park System.  It is partially surrounded by the Buffalo Gap National Grassland that also preserves the prairie.

It was a very foggy and sometimes rainy day as we traveled through the park.  There were few visitors.  The higher the elevation, the worse the visibility.  It was eerie.  The badlands formations are very different anyway and when you add the fog to it, it was otherworldly.

We saw lots of wildlife.  I was fine with missing out on the scenic views because we saw so much wildlife.  We saw bighorn sheep, mule deer, prairie dogs, meadowlarks, red-winged blackbirds, white pelicans, a coyote, a Canada Goose, and lots of other birds.

In addition, before the entrance to the park, we saw a cattle round-up.  I’m not kidding.  There were lots of people on horses and they already had all the cattle gathered in a circular enclosure.  There were a bunch of calves in with adults.  Regis thinks they might be preparing to tag the calves.