Go West Ol' Man - Day 5, August 8

 We only had about 130 miles to travel today so we took advantage of that and slept. The drive over from our campground to the Harvest Host (HH), The Black Hills Farm Life, with TuTara Farm and Ranch was pretty smooth. Took the back hiway over to avoid the traffic - think we had 3 cars / trucks pass us. Coming the other direction, lots of motorcycles. They were lucky and had the tail wind and we fought the headwind all the way over.

Pictures are from this morning and then at our HH site.  The hills are "black" looking as they trees are so thick and from a distance, the hills do look black.  That said, where the land is flat, there is nothing to stop the wind blowing.  We had a 20 minute wind storm this evening and we worked to get the aweings up and secured. Just as soon as it arrived, it was gone.  

Tomorrow we get a farm tour of the HH and will pick up some fresh breakfast sausage links. Plan to hit the Mamoth exhibit along with the fossil museum before things get too hot (was 102 this afternoon here).  But hey, it's a dry heat right?

.

Go West Ol' Man - Day 4 - August 7

 Our first thing to do today was climb Notch Trail ladder to the the top.  The climb was not as bad I thought it would be. Thought the going down the ladder was tough as you could not see the step that was below.  The views were great and was surprised how much you could see. Lots of pictures from there.  The link below shows a couple climbing up. I was not about to try videoing us going up.  

CLimbing notch trail

Next stop was the Door trail and it did not disappoint.  This was ground level walking, no stairs or steps to speak of. Its interesting how the different area have different types of soil composition.  You can tell where there has been more water on the ground vs what the higher places.

Our last stop was the Fossil Exhibit trail. It was a shorter tail but showed where different animal fossils have been located. Was interesting to see where what animals were found in relation to where we standing.  

Badlands Hotel and Campground

Notch Trail

Go West Ol' Man - Day 3, August 6

 After talking to the rangers this morning, they said the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail. Started the morning with a hike tothe Cliff Shelf Nature Trail.  Was not disappointed in what you could see along the trail.  Saw a mule deer laying in the grass chewing on some grass. Much like Philmont, they are used to seeing humans walking by.  It just laid there enjoying its morning snack.  On up the trail came across a desert rattlesnake.  He gave his tail rattle giving plenty of warning that he was there under the cypress tree.  He wasn't going to hurt anyone, just sitting in the shade away from the sun.

Next stop was to take a look at the Notch Trail. It was getting late in the morning so decided best to tackle the ladder in the morning as there are fewer folks.  The ladder will only accomadate folks going up or down but not at the same time.  You would see a group of folks all of the sudden along the tral and they were ones that had just come down. Once they got down another group would climb up.  At the same area, the Window trail was there - easy walk but the view of the canyon was fabulous.  Will decide if we go up tomorrow or not. 

After lunch, headed out on truck tour.  This allowed time to view a lot of the Badlands from vista points Not sure if I was able to tag the location for all of them.  Saw critters that were both large and small - buffalo and prairie dogs. The buffalo was one big boy. Ranger said that he probably one of grandpas of the heard.

The park has an evening program followed by a star progam just after sunset. Program was good and featured foods of the prairies. The star show was some impacted due to smoke from the wild fires out on west coast, but both were very good.