After photographing wildflower scenes around my campsite, I left the campsite to travel into Badlands National Park to scout locations for golden hour photography. But first, I drove around a little in the large public land area, where I was camped to get a better feel for the area and scout other possible campsites, in case my prefered location was again taken or the site I occupied on my first night here was taken, when I returned in the evening.
There are numerous road trails through this area, which is popular with off-road vehicle riders, who create their own trails with their dirt bikes, 4 wheelers and other vehicles. I traveled into the area a bit, but did not take time to fully explore the area, after I was satisfied that it would be no problem to easily find numerous suitable places to overnight here.
I parked along one of the trails on my way out, hiked up to the top of one of the many hills in this area and captured this pano:
There is a gravel road that leads from the small town of Interior, SD into Badlands NP, which I take as a short cut into the park, rather than following the highway to a main entrance. There is a sign indicating when one is entering the park on this backroad, but no entry station. The sign does inform that a permit or fee is required to be in the park, so anyone in the park might be asked by a ranger to show proof of fee payment or other permit. I have a Senior Pass, one of the few benefits of old age, so I never worry about having to show proof that I can be in a National Park.
I stopped on this gravel backroad to shoot a few images of the Badland features in the distance that appear to “erupt” out of the flat land in the foreground.
It was a mostly heavily overcast day with periodic light rain. I stopped at a number of the overlooks to snap a few scouting photos with my iPhone. The dramatic clouds in the sky made for interesting photos and I probably should have taken more time to capture better quality images with my Nikon Z8 and wide angle Z14-24mm lens. The Z8 is sealed well, but keeping rain drops off of the big lens glass can be a problem and I wanted to be able to scurry about quickly, so I left the big camera and lens in my vehicle, while I scouted various locations for shooting later in the day.
With the heavy cloud cover, not much direct light fell upon the badlands features, but occasionally a little light broke through the clouds to highlight some of the rocks.
The shape of the mound of dry, cracked, gray earth in the foreground bears a similarity with the shape of the rain clouds in the sky, yet the dryness of that mound of clay contrasts with the wetness of the clouds.
Lush green vegetation in the low areas contrasts with the almost barren rock in the background.
A meandering stream runs through the low area at the base of the badlands features.
More Badlands images later,
Ken
P.S. These images are best viewed on a large screen.