A Year Ago

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badlands national park, photography, pinnacles overlook, postaday, yellow mounds overlook

A year ago a friend and I were in the early days of our transcontinental trip to visit as many national parks as we could in 33 days. The first park we visited was Badlands National Park. Despite its name, the park was beautiful, easily accessible, and not as crowded as better known parks such as Grand Canyon.

Going through my photos, I reprocessed and am posting one image published on this blog last year on the same date. This is one of the first sights of the park when one enters it through its north gate near the town of Wall, SD.

View from Pinnacles Overlook at Badlands National Park.

Here’s an image taken near Yellow Mounds Overlook just 3 miles (5 km) from Pinnacles. As you can tell, the sun was setting, adding its vivid colors to those of the Badlands striated rock formations.

View from Yellow Mounds Overlook, Badlands National Park.

Wordless Wednesday

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badlands national park, photography, postaday, sunset

Sunset over Badlands National Park.

Best of 2015 – Part 2

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badlands national park, Bixby Bridge, lake almanor, lassen volcanic national park, marina, Mr Rainier National Park, mt thielson, photography, postaday, reflection lake, two medicine

This Part 2 series consists of photos of the wonderful landscape I traveled through in 2015.

Beach at Marina, CA.

Bixby bridge after sunset, near Carmel, CA.

Lake Almanor, Chester, CA near Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Sunrise in Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

Two Medicine lake, Glacier National Park, Montana.

Reflection Lake, Mt Rainier National Park, Washington state.

Mt. Thielson near Crater Lake National Park, Oregon.

Badlands Sunrise

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badlands national park, hdr, photography, postaday, road trip

When I saw this sunrise at Badlands National Park during my recent road trip, I knew it was going to be impossible to take only one photo that would take into account the bright and colorful rising sun shining intensely over everything, and the hills that were only a third as bright. So I took three shots: overexposed, underexposed, and normal. Today, using Photomatix HDR software, I got the following result.

Badlands sunrise in HDR.

Badlands – Additional Photos from Road Trip

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badlands national park, photography, postaday

Here are some more photos I took at Badlands National Park near Wall, SD in early September.

The Badlands consist mainly of sedimentary rocks deposited from 26 to 75 million years ago. Erosion from rivers and streams began 500,000 years ago and is occurring at the rate of one inch per year. So this area is constantly changing from one year to the next, and it is estimated that it will be completely eroded in another 500,000 years.

Sedimentary rocks are friable. When you walk on them, it feels like walking on compacted sand that crumbles under your feet. People do hike trails that go up ridge lines so that they can explore and view the area from some height. Many fossils have been found in the various rock layers, and more fossils continue to be discovered as erosion uncovers them.

Badlands National Park.

Badlands National Park.

Badlands National Park.

Badlands National Park.

Badlands National Park.

My car at Badlands National Park as another one was pulling out of parking lot at the Yellow Mounds Overlook.

Badlands

Tags

badlands national park, photography, postaday, road trip

We left Fort Dodge, IA yesterday morning after admiring a glorious sunrise behind our motel.

Sunrise over Fort Dodge, IA.

Once we reached I-90, it was an easy drive from East to West, in a virtually straight line, bordered by immense fields of corn, soybean, sunflowers. We arrived in Wall, SD in early afternoon and went straight to nearby Badlands National Park to try to capture the sunset. This morning we woke up at 4 AM and went to wait for the sun to rise.

View from Pinnacles Overlook in late afternoon.

Badlands sunrise from Panorama Point.

Bighorn Ram at Badlands grazing a bare 15 ft from where I stood.

Near the town of Wall, SD. This is actually outside of Badlands .

Badlands is an underrated national park which is very accessible to everyone of all ages, from casual visitors to dedicated hikers. Its rugged pinnacles and canyons are made of layers of sediments and volcanic ashes which are constantly being eroded by the forces of nature. Thus the view will change from year to year, and you’ll need to be there to really appreciate its beauty.

Miles driven to date: 1,954 miles.