Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 1

In early June 2025, I traveled to Badlands National Park, South Dakota. I was not completely satisfied with my photos from this awesome national park from a visit a few years ago. I had some ideas of how to get better images during this visit.

I arrived late in the day and went directly to a BLM area south of the park that I had discovered during my last visit. At that time, I was often the only camper, at least as far as I could tell, in the area.

This time there was a camper in my favorite, quick and easy access spot. So I continued along a narrow dirt trail to find another suitable overnight location. This is a large area, so there are no shortages of possible parking/camping sites, but I was no longer alone in the area. There were no other campers nearby, but I could see one or two far away on higher locations. This place has been discovered, but is still sparsely utilized.

The forecast for the next morning was for heavy overcast and I was tired after my long journey, so I decided not to get up early for sunrise photography. Rather I explored a bit in this area and photographed the local scenery with my iPhone, including blooming cacti. As I drove around the area, I began to realize how big it was. I did not even explore to the limits of the area, before leaving and driving into the park to scout potential photography locations.

Time to head out to see what I can find in the park,

Ken

More Relics in Rural America – Part 5

This is a continuation of photography of old, abandoned homes or other structures that I’ve found, while traveling in middle America.

It is unusual for me to come across such finds as this late in the day with the sun low in the sky or with such great clouds in the sky from a clearing rain storm. I had to walk through tall grass to get near enough to shoot this old homestead in Middle America.

This tiny house (or storage building?) is behind the bigger house (first image).

Walking around to the back side of the tiny house, I found this pile of rocks from the collapsed structure, an old cast iron bathtub and other debris.

The title for this image is inspired by the small object I spotted in the upper left corner of the door frame. I know that object might be too small in this image for a viewer to identify, but it is an old Prince Albert tobacco tin. Prince Albert tobacco is still produced and it was very common and popular, when I was a kid growing up. Empty, discarded tins like this were common litter items back then.

There are two abandoned houses at this homestead, the one in the first image and the one in the image above.

Shooting the windmill from another direction, shows the first house and the tiny house in the background.

There are modern electric power generating windmills on the far horizon in this image, indicating the continuity of wind energy in Middle America from the past into the future.

Thanks for following,

Ken

More Relics in Rural America – Part 4

This is a continuation of photographs of rural relics I encountered in a spring of 2025 road trip through middle America.

Didn’t I always shelter you from the rain and the cold? Wasn’t I always here, when you returned from a hard days’ work?

More relics are down the road,

Ken

More Relics in Rural America – Part 3

More photos taken in rural America, during an early June 2025 roadtrip.

My first inclination was to call this “Puddle House” for an obvious reason. I had to shoot this old, abandoned house from a fence line near the roadway with a big zoom to get the close up image.

More relics are just down the road,

Ken

More Relics in Rural America – Part 2

This post is a continuation of photographs of relics I encountered during my June, 2025 trip to and from Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

This old house in a small rural town has so much lean that it appears to be relishing its status with a “swagger”. It was raining lightly, when I stopped to photograph here, so I moved around as expeditiously as I could, while capturing these images. Weeks later, when I got around to processing these images, I at first thought that my lens had distorted this old house, since I did not recall noting this much lean in real time. After examing multiple images, I had to conclude that the lean was not exaggerated by my camera.

The concrete pad out front with the water hydrant, makes me think this could have been a business site, maybe an old service station?

Across the street from “Swagger”, is this old boarded up house with a metal roof that seems to be in much better condition than the rest of the house. Maybe this place has not been abandoned for too many years.

There were a number of other abandoned homes and other old structures in the same neighborhood. “Made in the Shade” house seems to be relaxing in the shade of a tree, retired after a long life of sheltering others.

“Not as Neat as I Once Was” is done with the days of neat and orderly, with more important things to contemplate in its old age.

This old home has multiple outdoor laundry facilities.

“Gravity Wins” is the likely future for the abandoned structures in this post.

More Relic to come,

Ken

More Relics in Rural America

On my way to and from Badlands National Park in early June 2025, I drove through many small towns and rural areas between Texas and South Dakota. I always keep my eyes open for photographic opportunities to break up the long drives. One of my favorite targets for such are old, rural structures, especially those that appear to have been abandoned. This post will feature some of those photographs from this trip.

I spotted this magnificent old house just a few miles before my first ovenight stop over in Kansas. It sits well back from the roadway in an open field. I shot from a fence line near the roadway with my 24-70mm, then used my 80-400mm to get a closer view of the house.

The following day, not long after leaving my overnight area, I spotted more intriguing structures, which required some minor rerouting to get close enough to shoot.

This stone house appears to be in fairly good condition, but seems to be abandoned. It is not far from a dirt road, but there is no indication of any roadway access to this structure.

I had to walk a considerable distance on a muddy, dirt road in a drizzling rain to get close enough to shoot this old one and even then I had to stop at a fence line and photograph from a distance. I had only brought my 24-70mm lens mounted on my D850 and wished I had put on my 80-400mm, when I had to stop at that fenceline.

There was another, smaller structure, in similar condition, down the hill from the house, but I was too far away to get a good shot of that with my 24-70mm.

I would have liked to have gotten closer, but I did not want to cross that fenceline and trespass, since that fence was obviously there to keep people out. There was no evidence of graffiti, which I suspect is an indication of the lack of easy access from the local roadways and the remote rural location of this structure.

Stay tuned for more Rural Relics,

Ken

Southern Utah March 2025 – White Rocks – Part 9

This is the final installment of photography in the area of Southern Utah known as ‘White Rocks’.

‘Rocky Slope’ give an indication of the environment one must navigate to photograph in this area.

‘Leaving White Rocks 1’ was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page.

And that’s a wrap,

Ken

Southern Utah March 2025 – White Rocks – Part 8

This is a continuation of multiple shoots in an area of Southern Utah known as ‘White Rocks’.

This first image on the Flickr Explore page.

To be continued,

Ken

Southern Utah March 2025 – White Rocks – Part 7

We returned to the area refered to as White Rocks in Southern Utah for an early morning shoot. I switched from the Nikon D850 and 24-70mm lens to the Nikon Z8 and Nikon Z14-24mm for this shoot.

To be continued,

Ken

Southern Utah March 2025 – White Rocks – Part 6

This is the final part for the first afternoon visit to White Rocks in Southern Utah in March 2025.

Late day sunlight reflects off of the bodies of these hoodoos and illuminates the underside of the flat tops, which would otherwise by in shadow.

I’ve made up names for these hoodoos, which seem fitting to me, but others might think of other names they like better.

After climbing out of the White Rocks canyon, which was already nearly all in shadow, I paused to capture a few shots over the canyon and the landscape around the canyon. The sun was low in the sky, not quite golden hour, but the lighting was good. We still had to hike back to our vehicle and make a slow drive out of this area, which is best done in daylight, so we never quite waited for sunset.

This wraps up this late day shoot in White Rocks.

Until next time and thanks for following,

Ken

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Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 1

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More Relics in Rural America – Part 5

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More Relics in Rural America – Part 4

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More Relics in Rural America – Part 3

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More Relics in Rural America – Part 2

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More Relics in Rural America

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Southern Utah March 2025 – White Rocks – Part 9

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Southern Utah March 2025 – White Rocks – Part 8

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Southern Utah March 2025 – White Rocks – Part 7

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Southern Utah March 2025 – White Rocks – Part 6

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