We left the Boys at the trailer so we could do a hike today. We left the campground and made the drive via the southerly route through Interior.
I took more pics of the buffalo...they're so handsome...
and tried to capture this coyote/prairie dog interaction.
There are so many prairie dogs, it must be like a buffet for the coyotes and the birds of prey. Well, provided they're fast enough to catch the little boogers before they dodge into their burrows. :)
We got to the parking lot for the trail head and did the Notch Trail first. It was a short 2 mile round trip hike that was quite entertaining.
It had a cool log ladder that we had to climb...
and a few places that required a careful step...
The color of the formations is so bright that a lot of them look fake...
There was great opportunity for shadow pictures. Here, we do a 70's disco dance... :)
And here, we went off trail and found a dead end. This is a puddle at the base of a small cliff (about 20 or 25 feet).
BTW...Off trail is allowed in this park. In fact, you can hike anywhere your heart's content in the Badlands. Now THAT'S cool. Not too many national parks let you do that.
After the Notch Trail, we walked across the parking lot to the Castle Trail. This is a 10 mile round trip hike through the Badland formations and prairie grasses.
A couple miles in, we encountered this guy.
In fact, we walked within inches of him before he warned us with his rattle. When we walked past him, he was coiled in the grass right on the edge of the dirt path. After we passed and turned to look at him, he slithered onto the path and gave us a little show. I'm fine with snakes - just not poisonous ones that I walk right by without spotting. Yo! You have a rattle - how about you warn me BEFORE I approach. Stupid snake.
The trail offered more variety than I expected...
and definitely more wildlife than I figured we'd see. As we approached this small butte, we noticed this ram. He walked to the edge to inspect us below.
I continued to walk around the butte and saw two little faces that quickly dashed off. Bill was on the other side and watched them jump down and scamper off. They were soooo cute. A perfect little family.
At the trail junction, we decided to bag the full Castle Trail since A) it was just an out and back and B) it would be a long day for the Boys if we did the whole thing. We took a side trip on the Saddle Pass trail for a few hundred yards so we could take in the view.
We returned to the trail junction and took the Medicine Root loop which connected to the Castle Trail closer to the trailhead. This loop consisted of more narrow singletrack paths...
...with snakes. This guy scared the crap out of me. I was leading and yet again, he let me walk right beside him before giving a shake of his rattle. He didn't stick around. He slithered into his hole pretty quick (thus the lousy picture), but I was able to get a short video. It too is lousy, but was more for the sound than anything.
The rest of the hike was uneventful. We had a pretty aggressive pace the whole time thinking we were going to do the full 10 mile out and back on the Castle Trail. We ended up doing the Castle/Medicine Root loop (6.6 miles) in 2 hours and 37 minutes - pictures, snakes, video and all - which was nearly a full hour less than the advertised round trip time of 3.5 hours. Sweet. We'll call that exercise.
After we got back to the trailer, we let the Boys out to romp and walked them down to the creek. It was funny to watch them sink in the mud and look surprised by their predicament. They're supposed to be smart dogs.... :)
We played for awhile and I sat outside with the Boys enjoying the warm weather and reading my Kindle. We had an early dinner (an uber salad to stay with the healthy/exercise mentality for the day), and I worked on the blog for a couple of hours while Bill read.
We bundled up again and went outside to watch the stars. Unfortunately, there was cloud cover that prevented us from seeing them horizon to horizon, but the clouds were moving quickly so we eventually got to gaze at the full spectrum of light. I put the camera on the tripod and tried to get some shots.
FAIL. I really need to get a nice camera and take a photography class. :)
So, yet another great day at Badlands National Park. I'm so glad we extended the trip to visit South Dakota. It's proved to be a pretty cool state. Who would have thunk it? ;)
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