The Badlands

I wake up to the sunrise peeking into my tent. It's a beautiful morning but my tent is soaked in dew. I decide to look at some maps while my tent dries off. I eventually get on the road and check out the Oahe dam which is just down the road. The Oahe dam is on the Missouri River, and it creates lake Oahe which is one of the world's largest man-made reservoirs capable of storing up to 23.5 million acre-feet of water. Sounds impressive I guess. I then make my way further west towards the Badlands.

On the way I continue to notice the crops being grown. Michigan had some farming. Wisconsin has a lot of corn and ton of soy, as did Minnesota. South Dakota also has corn but I've started to see massive sun flower crops. I always knew we grew a lot of food in the Midwest, but seeing it is unreal. To think about the scale of the farming that is happening here is like picturing 23.5 million acre-feet. It is immense, and to some extent frightening how much of one type of food is grown in an area. Corn, soy, and sunflowers, none of which I care to consume a great deal of.

I make a lunch stop along the way and then I finally arrive. The views are every bit as dramatic as I had imagined. I stop in at the visitors center on the park road, and ask about back country hiking. Apparently you can go anywhere you want. There is no out of bounds, you just can't have a fire or shoot anything. I get a hint about where to park and a good area to hike in. I stash the bike around the corner from the parking lot out of view and take to the wilderness. I walk for about 2 hours and the sun is getting low in the sky. I think that means it's time to set up my tent and eat dinner. I watch the sky for a bit and see a couple of satellites, and then the nearly full moon spoils the starry sky. Time to go to sleep.

Pictures: Sunrise at cow Creek on lake Oahe. The inlets to the hydroelectric turbines. A glimpse of the Badlands from the loop road. My hidden parking spot. The Badlands from the prairie. My home for the night.Read more