To The Badlands, and Back

I left with a group of three other photographers last Thursday morning to head to The Badlands of South Dakota. My only experience with this area was when we packed up Vicki's van and headed the family to see Kristie in Montana. We had what? 7 people, including a baby, in the van? I think that's right. My only memories of it was that I'd been to Wall Drug, and actually didn't remember much else of the area.

I got the new minivan ready and packed on Wednesday night, with what I could pack up. Thursday morning, I got up about 4:30 a.m., and got ready. I was on the road by 5, after saying a hard "goodbye" to my wife. I always have a hard time saying goodbye to her.

I hit the road, and picked up Wayne at his home, in Eagan. The plans had already changed; Bob, who was supposed to meet us at a church in Apple Valley on Johnny Cake Ridge Road, had his wife drop him off at Wayne's place. Cool! One less stop. We loaded up the van with their stuff, and we headed to Barry's place, about 10-15 minutes across Eagan.

We got on the road quickly. When it usually takes me about 3 1/2 hours to get to Jackson, we were there by 8:30 a.m., when we left at 6 a.m. The South Dakota border wasn't far away either; before I knew it, we passed Sioux Falls too. We did stop at a few places; mainly to get gas in the van and stretch out a bit.

Our first main stop was at a rest stop on the Missouri River. Barry and I ended up walking around a bit and took some pictures of the rail bridge and the tee pee at the rest area. Seems that many of South Dakota's fine rest stops have the tall, concrete tee pees at them. We ate sandwiches that we brought along, and all had a good stretch and a break from the road.

On the road again, we came across Oakaton. The road signs advertise that they have a gas station, but like most of Oakaton, it was closed. The town is pretty much a ghost town; and at one point, they tried to market towards that fact. There is a building that even says "Ghost Town Merchandising Company", that was boarded up too. We spent a good amount of time shooting the old grain elevator, abandoned homes and a few vehicles that were lying around in fields. I even ended up getting sunburned there, as my hat and any short sleeved shirts were packed in my bag in the back of the van. It got up to 90 degrees out on Thursday.

We eventually rolled into Wall, South Dakota. As most of you know, Wall is known for one thing: Wall Drug. Very overly-marketed Wall Drug. I considered on counting the Wall Drug signs we saw on the way out, but I don't think I could count that high.

We checked into our hotel; the Best Western Plains. Very nice staff, very nice and clean rooms. We did not check out the indoor pool, even though it had one. Rooms smelled clean and fresh, even though they were not laid out the best. No big deal; our plans were to be in them only when we needed to sleep. We were here to shoot!

After about an hour of rest, we re-loaded up the van and headed into The Badlands National Park. A mere $15 entrance fee, you have access to the park for a week, 24 hours a day. Not a bad deal!

We drove maybe 4 miles into the park, and stopped. We all jumped out at one of the overlooks, and started shooting. What an incredible place! I couldn't believe all of the colors and textures. And it got better! A cold front started rolling in, and gave us some great clouds. After several hundred shots, and a few more stops, including the town of Interior, we packed up back into the van and headed back to the hotel. They have free wi-fi, so I was able to log on, process some images, and upload them to Flickr.

We woke up Friday morning to cold weather. We ate breakfast at Wall Drug; they have a decent breakfast menu for a good price. I had scrambled eggs, bacon and toast for $6. The skies were not as forgiving with the "good light", but I still took a ton of photos, with more exploring around the area. I'm glad I brought several layers of clothes, as it didn't get above 37 degrees out on Friday. Wayne was a bit disappointed; he wanted better skies, but the sky was not cooperating.

We hiked up a trail; Saddle Pass Trail. The map said it was "strenuous", but only .25 of a mile long. What it doesn't tell you is that it is up a side of one of the hills. I got to the top, walked around a bit, and decided I needed to get back down. My legs were sore, I was out of breath, and just felt that I was a bit too high up. So, I looked around, and everyone else was gone. I headed back down by myself, and made it to the bottom.

The story I heard after Barry, Wayne and Bob came back down was they thought I may have fallen down one of the many cliffs. Barry and Wayne both saw someone who looked like me (black jacket, khaki pants), walking off in the opposite direction. Apparently, they called after the other guy, and started walking after him, trying to figure out where I went.

I ended up seeing Bob at the top, and he called down to me. Funny thing; you can hear people talking at the tops of the hills when you're at the bottom. I waved back to Bob, and he called Barry on his cell phone to say he found me. I wasn't exactly lost; I just needed to get to the bottom of the hills. I ended up resting for a while, and I called my wife on the phone. We had a good chat; she helped calm me down a bit and I started feeling better.

More shooting, more driving around. We hit up a place called The Cactus Bar and Grill in town, and I had a decent dinner: cheeseburger and fries. Headed back to the hotel room, and processed more photos.

Saturday we woke up to 2+ inches of snow. Snow! Amazing. We headed into the Badlands again, and found some fun shots with the snow before it all melted away. Being an overcast day again, with no good light, we decided to head to Mount Rushmore.

I've never been to Mount Rushmore. I've of course, seen photos, but never made the trip. After about an hour and a half, we pulled into the parking lot at the National Monument. There was a good number of people there still, even though it was only about 40 degrees out. Unfortunately, the walking trails around the monument were all closed, so we couldn't get any closer to it than the band shell below. I ended up finding Becky a shirt there, and Barry and I started shooting the entrance; with the state flags and the tall granite posts. As soon as we started shooting, the whole area cleared out, except for one guy. This guy was really, really cool; he realized what we were doing, and voluntarily got out of the way of the shots. I couldn't believe our luck! We had the whole granite entryway to ourselves, without any people to interfere with the shot.

We packed up into the van, and headed back to Wall, after stopping at Arbys for lunch. I keep on forgetting that their food isn't that great, and I should make some better decisions about what I eat.

We went back to The Cactus for dinner again, but didn't travel out to take any photos. Before dinner, I found Wayne and Bob down in the lobby on the shared computers. Wayne was showing the ladies who worked at the hotel my shots from Friday that I posted up. They loved them! One of them actually ordered a print, so I'm excited about that. The three ladies were talking to each other after we left, and the one who ordered a print said "I wonder if he'd trade a night for a print." Of course, Wayne and everyone else took it as a "night with her", instead of a "room for a night", which is what she meant. We all had a good laugh about it in the end.

We woke up Sunday, with the plan that if it was not sunny out, we'd pack up the van and head back home. And, like the previous two days, it was not sunny, but probably grayer than the previous two days. We hit Wall Drug one last time for breakfast (breakfast buffet!), and checked out of the hotel room. No big stops for photos, we ended up getting back into town about 4, and after I dropped everyone off at their homes, I got home about 5:30 p.m.

It was a fun trip, and I'd do it all again. the driving got to be a bit much, but I never complained or had someone else drive, and all three of the other guys volunteered to drive at different times, and I turned them down.