Run like the wind to Wind Cave National Park

 It was a little cooler overnight! I woke with cold feet, remembering way too late that I did in fact, pack appropriately for this. By 4:30 AM I was up and at 'em. Foggy headed, disheveled and disorganized being the true description of my situation. The sky was clear and sunrise (pre-sunrise) was phenomenal ... but I really couldn't figure out which overlook and view was right or where to train my camera.

I walked, sat, enjoyed the changing light and little skilled photography to show for it. That's life sometimes!

The universe was telling me it was time to make coffee, eat Lucky Charms with raspberries and take time to pull myself together - So I did.

The universe was also telling me not to ignore that crawly feeling on my neck. At 8:58 AM I pulled a lively (but still hungry?) tick off my collar and released him back into the wilds. Guessing he was an American dog tick... I did a quick interwebs search of risk factors associated with ticks out here. After all, I still had a lot of "walking through the weeds" planned.

- Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

- Lyme Disease (more likely from a deer tick)

- Tularemia

- Anaplasmosis - unlikely

- Ehrlichiosis

NICE! Ticky was all I thought I took away from a disappointing photoshoot but if I don't end up needing a dose of tetracycline, then I guess it's not a big deal. And I learned a little something.

Plus, there is always someone less fortunate and today that award goes to the hundreds of swallows frantically regurgitating white clay into pretty mud nests. Trouble is they picked a shelter located at the fossil-find area. Every morning around 8 AM a ranger stops by and uses a shovel to wipe off the half-built nests and then power washes the clay evidence so the shelter goes back to being nest-free... for a while. Truthfully, before he has even left the parking lot, they're coughing up more mud and ... it will be groundhog day again tomorrow.

Yesterday I felt devastated for them. Today it seemed the ranger and birds were evenly matched and it was hard to guess who was winning the battle of wits. I took their pictures and called it good. 

What a mess! LOL 

I bopped around for a bit then used the Visitor Center washroom and headed west. It was time to see what WIND CAVE National Park offered.

Obviously more prairie dog towns - because South Dakota does seem to hold them up with a level of  pride only previously witnessed for Simba in The Lion King!

And for sure there were bison... But could they beat the running and dust bathing guys from earlier today?

A ranger told me to wait a couple of hours for some heat to dissipate before completing the wildlife loop by car - increase my chances of seeing animals doing anything at all. Rumor has it badgers and coyotes are possible. We'll see. In the meantime, a good chance to find shade, make a sandwich and catch up on journaling.

I literally slept on the side of this road tonight, having hit a wall (mentally, not literally) around 9 PM while driving the 7-11 Rd just outside Wind Cave. I could get used to sleeping near moo-ing cows and watching the light fade from my wee cot in the 4-runner!

Feral and Free in the Badlands

4:20 AM in the very dark car, my alarm woke me. Still tired? Yesiree! But sunrise was in <1 hour and those colors were going to POP with or without me... or ...NOT!

Grey and overcast = no sunrise! The colors most certainly didn't pop and in the wee hours I found myself making drip coffee out the back of the 4-runner and eating Lucky Charms while the critters began their day too. There wasn't anywhere I'd rather be. 

Anyhow, the day got better even if the light wasn't all that magical. I hiked in flipflops and a skirt, taking pictures of flowers and formations, pronghorn, bison and even a prairie dog before visiting the town of Wall - Home to Wall Drug! (Yep, I went to see what all the hype was about. It's a curious little place; cheap and cheerful, everything you need and then some. A tad chaotic honestly.)

I drove the big Rim Road loop to finish out much like I started yesterday.

There *might* have been a spontaneous 2 hour nap taken alongside a field of wildflowers.

Today featured a crazy good sunset and sky. 

The highlight (2 really), was bighorn sheep mammas and their babes high on a rocky precipice at sunset. A-MAZING!

A close second was simply sharing the experience with a young family from WI. Kids  all super interested in photography, well mannered and a social delight, in fact. National parks are apparently where I go to restore my faith in humanity, as well as revive my spirit, feed my creative side and learn things.  (I secretly hoped that these young parents don't stop at 6 kids. We need more like this!)

Road Trip! Badlands National Park is calling me

 If there was a shorter, straighter way through Nebraska to South Dakota, I never found it. What I experienced was a dog-legged journey through cut fields just beginnng to sprout, views of silos and the fleeting back-ends of pronghorn. 

Roadside gas stations were overflowing with people paying CASH for bits and bobs... slowly.  I was being transported back in time to when life was simpler. The universe reminded me that this was literally what I had been asking for!

Along the way, I came upon 'Car-Henge' quite randomly and surprisingly. I stopped of course. It's weird, wonderful and definitely falls under the category of art installation. My final thought was not "why?" as my initial thought had been; It was "why not?!"

There is still the occasional (giant by any standards) Trump 2024 sign around. I do wonder if there had been more and if the recent political climate has changed things for some in middle Nebraska. 

As I drive, Neil Young and his harmonica is belting out ".. because I'm still in love with you I want to see you on dance again. Because Im still in love with you on this harvest moon". I kind of wish there was a harvest moon now. Nonetheless, I am singing along with great joy and enthusiasm in my atrocious voice. Life is good. I crossed into South Dakota just before 4 PM. There were beautiful cumulous clouds, the ground was now green and rolling, trees sprout here unlike most of the Nebraska leg - which was also beautiful in its own way. However, I have to believe that someone in SD was in charge of where to draw the state line and Nebraska paid the price!

Through White Clay I drove. Turns out there was a Pow Wow going on there this weekend! Super fun energy abounds and it appeared to be an amazing gathering place, making me a little sad to pass through so quickly. BIA 27 (Bureau of Indian Affairs, Rd 27) took me closer and closer.

Through Buffalo Gap National Grasslands where the earth was bursting with wildflowers and bison. 

Reaching Badlands National Park just around 7pm. Timed perfect for late afternoon color at Yellow Mounds and a sunset picnic dinner at Pinnacles Overlook.

Tonight I found my spot boon-docking just outside the entrance of the Park with a couple of dozen other vehicles. We are perched on a dirt road, looking over the Badlands. Cows and with newborn calves graze idly nearby.  I have all of 6 hours before the alarm will wake me! Night, night!