National Parks – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 8 – Rain Everywhere

This is a continuation of rainy day, iPhone photography in Badlands NP, South Dakota in June of 2025.

I made many other iPhone images this rainy day, but these are representative of all the scenes.

I knew I could not return to my favorite camping area, which would be too muddy to get into and out of, so I went to the more popular, and usually crowded, Buffalo Gap Grassland BLM camping area on the north side of the park, thinking it might be more easily ingressed and egressed.

My assessment was partially correct. Going up the slight incline to the camping area along the badlands drop-off was easy, as the roadway was mostly rocky with only a few mud holes. However the roadway, where the campsites are set aside was already rutted by many camper passing through and the road has a slight tilt towards the west and my vehicle was fishtailing as I eased along it in 4 wheel drive. The campsites are just off of the roadway and there was a real danger of vehicles sliding into campers parked along the roadway. Indeed, campers watched carefully, as any vehicle passed by. I always swung as far away from the campers as possible before passing. As soon as I found an empty, flat campsite, I pulled in and breathed a sigh of relief. This site was at the base of a hill and I, too, watched with trepidation as any vehicle came down that hillside.

The next morning, I considered going to other scenic places within a few hours drive from the Badlands, but the wet weather pattern covered a large area of the country. So I decided it best to cut this trip short and head for home.

So far my visits to the Badlands National Park have not worked out in the best way for my photography intent, even though the scenery is fantastic.

That’s it for this photo trip.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 7 – Rain Everywhere

The weather forecast for my 2nd morning at Badlands National Park was for early morning heavy overcast with rain beginning in the early morning hours. So I did not bother getting up before sunrise, hoping the overcast and rain would dissipate prior to sunset.

Sure enough, I awoke to the sound of light rain falling. I was camped in an area of mostly all clay soil. I knew the rain would be bad news for navigation out of my campsite, so I quickly got dressed and prepared the Sportsmobile for travel. The terrain was already getting muddy and slippery, so I shifted into 4 wheel drive, as I had a couple of low hills to go up on my way out. Those hills sloped sideways as well as upwards and the Sportsmobile was slipping sideways on the hills. Slidding off would not be good. Fortunately, I made it over those two hills, thinking that once I got onto the flat land on my way out of the camping area there would be no problems. Well, even traveling slowly in 4WD, the Sportsmobile still fishtailed in the slippery, wet clay until I got onto the paved roadway.

I drove on into the park, parked in one of the parking areas to have coffee and breakfast as it continued to rain steadily for most of the time.

After breakfast, I contiuned to drive through the park in the light rain. It was apparent that I would not be able to get off of the paved roadway area due to the soggy soil everywhere else. I stopped periodically, walked around in the rain and shot with my iPhone, since it was easier to keep the rain off of the iPhone camera lens than it would have been to do with my big Nikon lenses.

The rain added some mood to the park scenes and the wettness enhanced the color in the geologic features. There were many wildflowers and grasses along the roadway, which I photographed with raindrops covering them and sometimes with the park features in the background, although the depth of field with the iPhone was severely limited in such scenes.

Stay tuned for more rainy day iPhone photography in Badlands NP, South Dakota.

Ken

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 6 – Disappointment

Just before sunset time, I went to my pre-chosen location for sunset photography in Badlands National Park. It was heavily overcast and the prospects for golden hour light on the geological features in the park did not look promising.

Nevertheless, I made a few images prior to sunset time, hoping to maybe duplicate some compositions at golden hour.

At least the sky was dramatic, but the golden hour light never came.

Until next time,

Ken

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 5 – Wildflowers

Near the hoodoo (last post) there were wildflowers, most with insects scrambling about on them, that I took time to photograph with my iPhone.

I made numerous images of this and other nearby Prickly Pear flowers. I think this is my best shot.

And to back track a little, I had stopped along the gravel, backroad into the park to check out a possible area for late day photography and noted the numerous and varied wildflowers at the side of the roadway. the sun was high in the sky, so the lighting was not highly favorable for shooting the wildflowers, but I did so anyway using the camera in my iPhone.

I also used the plant identification built into my iPhone to identify these wildflowers, so I hope my labels are accurate.

Though my iPhone identifies this yellow wildflower with many petals as a ‘Common Dandelion’, these don’t look like the dandelions that commonly grow in my Texas lawn. So maybe Texas does not have ‘Common Dandelions’?

The shiny leaves of this ‘Sphaeralia coccinea’ are mostly due to the bright sunlight reflecting from the petals.

I thought this wildflower was a form of the Texas Primrose, commonly referred to as a ‘buttercup’. Not so, according to my iPhone, which says it is ‘Field Bindweed’. The flower petals open more flatly than do those of the Texas Primrose.

And while the current topic is wildflowers, there are many in the Badland National Park. In my scouting stops along the main roadway through the park, I photographed many.

And some spent flowers. ‘Once there were Flowers’ monochrome image was chosen for Flickr’s Explore Page.

More iPhone scouting photos to follow,

Ken

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 3

At the very end of a visit to Badlands National Park several years ago, I thought I had found a really good place for sunset photography. So during this visit I found that location again and walked around during the day, scouting possible locations to return to at sunset. I used my iPhone camera to test a few compositions and capture a few micro-environmental images.

In ‘Dry Planet’ I wanted to show the similarity between the dry, white clay in the drainage patterns to the white clouds in the sky.

The dry drainage is waiting for more rain from those heavy clouds in the sky.

‘Dry Stream Bed’ features the same drainage as in ‘Anticipation’, from another view point.

The dry mud cracks into segments resembling a picture puzzle.

More scouting photos to come later,

Ken

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

Special Edition – Defending our National Parks and Public Lands

Trump and Musk Take Aim at the National Parks and Public Lands

Is indiscriminate firing of park service employees, forest service employees, and others that manage our public lands a first step at destroying our public parks and public lands?

It sure looks that way. Trump and the far right have made no secret of wanting to scale back our public lands and fully open them to commercial development.

There are many U.S. citizens, regardless of their politics, that love our public lands and great National Parks. Many spend much time camping, hiking and exploring the wilderness areas that this nation has protected and conserved. These lands and parks are national treasures set aside for a reason. But Trump and his people only think in terms of how much money they can make by exploiting those lands.

Here are a few examples of the current chaos being created by Musk’s unwarranted, indiscriminate firing of the people that manage our precious public lands:

The only locksmith at Yosemite NP fired. He is the only one available to rescue a visitor that gets locked in a public restroom in the park or let people get back into their rental room in the park, if they lock themselves out. The only one with keys to all of the secure places (federal court, administrative buildings, toilets, closets, gun safes, …) in this very large (about the size of Rhode Island) park and the knowledge to maintain the many locks and the keys in the park facilities.

The wait time at the Grand Canyon NP entrance doubled over a weekend, due to the firing of four employees that worked the entrance gate. The gate where 90% of the 5 million annual visitors enter the park.

Reservations were canceled for stays in historic farmhouses in Gettysburg National Military Park, after the staff there was gutted.

Employees working to replace a pipeline, built in the 1960s and subject to frequent failures, in Grand Canyon NP were fired. This pipeline supplies water for shower and laundry facilities.

A ranger at Effigy Mounds National Park, who helped teach elementary and middle school science students about our public lands and the natural world, was fired.

The Park Service was already understaffed before these Trump/Musk firings. The Park Service workforce had already declined by 15% since 2010, while park visitation has increased by 16% over that same time period. I have noted the effects of the understaffing and undermaintained facilities in some of my visits to a number of National Parks over the past few years. The effects of the current firings of critical staff are already evident and the peak season for visitors is not here yet.

Glacier NP can have 30,000 visitors in one day. That is about half the size of a typical Taylor Swift concert. There is no way to handle that many visitors each day with a greatly reduced staff.

We cannot allow our public parks and lands to be trashed.

Please protest these unwarranted moves toward destruction of our most precious lands with your congressional representative and Senators.

Ken

Yosemite National Park – Part 7

This post will wrap up my photography in Yosemite National Park, shooting the sunset golden hour at Yosemite Valley along the Merced River.

Aug13, 2024 — Yosemite Valley Sunset Golden Hour 1

I shot as the shadows creeped upward on the rock formations, pushing away the golden sunset light, so there are subtle differences between some of these images.

The final image is near the very end of golden sunset hour, looking up river.

This wraps up my time in Yosemite. Until next time,

Ken

Yosemite National Park – Part 6

While waiting for sunset golden hour at the edge of the Merced River at Yosemite Valley, I continued to make a few iPhone images of the scene in front of me, experimenting with compositional variations.

When the scenery is so marvelous, it is difficult to be satisfied with just a few image variations.

Bridal Veil Falls is visible in the distance across the river from this location and is seen in many of my compositions here, but usually as a small part of the image. I zoomed in to get this shot.

Looking ahead to the next post with these last two images, after shooting the golden hour with my DSLR, I made a few images with my iPhone as the golden hour ended.

Golden Hour Reflection in Merced River, iPhone Photo

Stay tuned for my final shoot in Yosemite,

Ken

Yosemite National Park – Part 5

For my final evening shoot in Yosemite, I decided to check out locations in the valley, finally choosing the Yosemite Valley View Point.

I arrived early to be sure I could find a place to park in the small pull out and walked around the area with my iPhone scouting shooting locations before I retrieved my tripod and DSLR from my vehicle.

I also experimented with test compositions, using my iPhone camera to do so.

I finally picked a place at the very edge of the Merced River at the parking lot. I would have like to have shot from farther done the river, but there were people sitting where they would be in most of my shots and lots of visitors wandering around that area, too. So I figured shooting across the river and back up the river from the parking lot area would avoid most such disturbances.

I set my tripod legs on rocks in the edge of the river and I had a rock to sit on while I waited for golden hour. While I waited, I made more images with my iPhone and a few test compositions with my DSLR.

More later,

Ken

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Category: National Parks

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 8 – Rain Everywhere

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Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 7 – Rain Everywhere

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Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 6 – Disappointment

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Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 5 – Wildflowers

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Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 3

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Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 1

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Special Edition – Defending our National Parks and Public Lands

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Yosemite National Park – Part 7

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Yosemite National Park – Part 6

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Yosemite National Park – Part 5

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