Badlands National Park

When the black hills were formed in South Dakota the ancient sea drained away. Once exposed to air, the black ocean mud was weathered into a yellow soil known as the yellow mounds. Tropical plants began to grow. Today many fossils are found in the yellow mounds. I took these shots on a somewhat cloudy day which diffused the normally harsh afternoon light and added to … [Read more...] about Badlands Yellow Mounds

The badlands have a way of making a person feel small within its vastness and ancient history. You think back to prehistoric times when dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats and miniature camels and horses roamed here. The buttes themselves feel timeless. The landscape changes suddenly from an “ocean of prairie” to its sharp buttes. It changes constantly, every year loosing an inch … [Read more...] about Timeless but Ever Changing

Badlands National Park is a desolate landscape of buttes and spires carved by centuries of prairie winds and rain. It is located on the edge of the Great Plains grasslands, home of the Ingalls homestead from Little House on the Prairie. From the top of the spires looking out on the landscape, it is hard not to think of the Old West. Some of the names associated with this … [Read more...] about Buttes and Spires in Badlands National Park