Badlands National Park Scenery

It's mid winter. There aren't any stripers to fish for in Providence. There is thin layer of ice on the ponds but it is not safe. Since there really isn't anything going on, I thought I'd share some pictures from my vacation out west in 2010. Of course Yellowstone and the other places I went are not in southern New England, but maybe these pictures will inspire someone to take a trip to any of these places. I'll put about ten to fifteen pictures of each place in a post. Each post will be of just one place. I'll start each post with this opening paragraph. If there are any question about any of the places (admission price, distance from town, etc.. just leave them in comments section and I will gladly answer them). Since these posts take about five minutes and there is not a lot of outdoors stuff going on right now, I'll probably post everyday, so check back often.

The Badlands was the first real place we stopped. we spent three days there. The weather can be brutally hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. When we were there, two days were about 100, the other near ninety. All things considered, it could have been worse. The Badlands are awesome. The landscape is unworldly. There is a surprising amount of wildlife. Some of the places we went on this vacation, we could have spent more time. Three days in the Badlands is just about perfect. Some people just get off the highway, do a loop through, and get back on the highway a couple hours later. With all the wildlife, that is a shame.

To put the Badlands to scale, I waited for an RV to drive through for a picture

Bighorn sheep at sunset

This was our campsite. It is in the Sage Creek Wilderness. The campground is free and considered one of the best free campgrounds in the world. The only amenity is an outhouse. There isn't even any water wells. I did not mind, the scenery was beautiful.  There are no fences or protection

from wild animals. Some of my friends do not seem to understand this. About five feet from my blue tent is a buffalo chip. 

The chip was from this lone bull. He lives in the area. In our three days at this campsite we saw him in a gully about 1/4 mile from our tent site. However, the day we left as we were packing he was only about thirty yards from us in the campground.