Tag: Public Lands

Badlands National Park, June 2025 – Part 4 – Dancing Around the Hoodoo

There is a hoodoo in Badlands National Park that is visible from the paved road through the park. Getting close to the hoodoo requires hiking down the steep slope from the roadway and a short hike.

I made numerous iPhone camera shots as I walked around the hoodoo to show how a hoodoo can look considerably different from different points of view.

Badlands Hoodoo 1
Badlands Hoodoo 2
Badlands Hoodoo 3
Badlands Hoodoo 4
Badlands Hoodoo 5
Badlands Hoodoo 6
Badlands Hoodoo 7

I think these make my point about “Dancing Around an Object” to photograph it.

Thanks for following and stay tuned for more Badlands scouting photos,

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.

Big Sky over Badlands
Dry Planet

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.

Anticipation

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

Dry Stream Bed

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

The Missing Piece

The dry mud cracks into segments resembling a picture puzzle.

The Bigger 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.

Prickly Pear Flower 1
Prickly Pear Flower and Bud
Threatening Sky
Prickly Pear Flower 2
Prickly Pear Flower 3
Mostly Clear Sky In This Direction
Prickly Pear and Companion Wildflowers
Prickly Sunburst
Rain Clouds Moving In
Prickly Back Light
Don’t Get Too Close
The Big Picture

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