Tonelli's Travels

Prepared for a hot, sunny day (finally!), we left out beautiful camping spot and drove the short distance to the park entrance. I was in the lead today, ready to stop at all the scenic viewpoints on the unceeded land of the Cheyenne people. My camera and phone were fully charged!

Rolling grasslands guide you down the road as you enter. Before we went too far, a few bighorn sheep greeted us on the side of the road. They were filling up their tummies with some delicious grass for breakfast, un-phased by the gawking humans.

But these dry plains soon gave way to an other worldly landscape, carved out by years of wind and water erosion. The best way to describe it really is to imagine walking on the moon. For miles and miles around you, the land rises and falls in bumpy, twisting mountains, striped in a variety of colors. Another way to describe it might be a sea of sand waves.

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At our next stop, a lone bison was down below at the lookout, roaming about. He eventually found the viewing bench and leaned in to give himself a good back scratch. Well, apparently he didn’t know his own strength and soon the bench went crashing over. Maybe the Park should think about cementing those structures in place. Haha

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Quickly we moved on, to yet another spectacular view. The rounded mounds that stretched before us looked as though a paint can of sunshine yellow had been dropped on top of them. Aptly named The Yellow Mounds, these vibrant landforms could brighten any day.

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Down the road a bit farther, another bighorn sheep lay resting at a cliff edge, chewing its cud, before we got to the Homestead Lookout. On this day, before us stretched acres of dry, windy grasslands. However, in the early 1900s people had invaded this native Cheyenne land and laid claim to different plots as a result of the Homestead Act. In 1907, nearly every patch of land would have had a fragile shelter that a family lived in as they tried to farm on the harsh soil. Very few succeeded, and many moved on quickly. There was a reason the Cheyenne didn’t live here full time. The families who tried to stick it out at the beginning of the 20th century faced drought, famine, and economic crisis. Therefore it is not surprising that the land today is uninhabited by humans and left to be natural again.

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That natural landscape was one we were ready to hike through, so before temperatures got too toasty we headed to the end of the park for the Medicine Loop Trailhead. We parked down a dirt road, signed the backcountry log, and headed out with plenty of water.

I felt like an ant walking among sandcastles at the beach. Down the dusty, dry path we walked with oddly shaped landforms rising before us. Distracted by the colors and shapes, we were startled when my dad yelped and jumped ahead of us on the trail. He had walked right by a rattlesnake! Luckily the snake sounded a warning and my dad moved rapidly away, so we were fine. It slowly slithered down its hole to cooler temperatures and less human annoyances. When its rattling tail was finally gone, we quickly scurried past. We were all on high alert for the rest of the hike, and luckily didn’t disturb any more creatures.

As we, cautiously, wove around the mounds and hills, we soaked up the heat and vitamin D offered by the sun. While we did stay in the trail, The Badlands is one of the few national parks that has an open hiking policy. That means you can hike anywhere in the park, anywhere. We took advantage at lunch time by finding a little bit of shade behind a mound, and climbed some hills for better views, but largely stuck to the trail. We didn’t have a topographical map, so best to follow the markers. With the right gear and training, it would be a great experience to explore the backcountry more.

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While looking up was spectacular, especially as we hiked the Castle Trail on the way back, along the ground was intriguing too. Dry and arid here, the ground almost cracks. In area where water flowed after a rainstorm, the dirt shatters and curls like an eggshell. And here and there hardy flowers and trees dig their roots deep to find water and hold on against the sandy winds. A sunflower here, a cactus there. Occasionally, you also walk to the edge of a canyon, where parts of the earth have eroded away below the current ground level. There is a surprising sight around every corner.

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The winds refreshed us every so often, and only occasionally whipped sand at us. You can see their strength in my hair standing up straight. Haha

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It was a full day of adventure, unlike any park we’ve visited so far. That evening we took well deserved showers and the next morning we stopped for one last opportunity to soak in the views before heading east through South Dakota. It was time to really start heading home.