Horny in The Badlands

Okay, that’s an outrageous title for a family blog post, I know. But, Maeve, smitten with the first big horn sheep we saw, named him Horny. Dan and I have been giggling about it all day, so I couldn’t resist.

This morning, we woke up to Sam shouting, “Holy cow!!! Did you see how far you can see???” (Well, okay, we actually woke up an hour earlier when he snapped on the overhead light to read, less charmingly.) After a quick breakfast we headed west along the prairies to Badlands National Park. The good – a wide-open, expansive blue sky. The bad – an endless stream of billboards, nearly blocking the fields behind them. The ugly – the often distressing messages on those billboards. The incredibly beautiful – the miles and miles of sunflower fields, blooming.

Maeve’s initial reflections on the Badlands:

We were driving along and it was mostly flat with some rolling hills and black cows and all of a sudden I could see the most amazing rocky cliffs I have ever seen so far. We got closer and closer and hotter and hotter until I realized we were right beside them. Sam and I had been working on our park ranger booklets so we knew a little park before we got here. I couldn’t wait to climb on them.

We went on a trail that led through the badlands, climbing on everything. Part of the trail was so steep that you had to climb a swinging log ladder. The cliffs were so high and the trail went along the very edges. The view was really cool and you could see forever. Sam and I were really hot and we found these greenish bluish rocks that made sort of caves that we could fit into. We thought it would be a perfect place for a Chamber of Reading.

Our camping spot is awesome and it has a picnic table that has a roof over it and I think it’s sort of like sunglasses for the table. The visiting centre is pretty interesting. It has lots of fossils and is sort of like the ROM but a mini-version. We saw a dead stuffed rattlesnake there all coiled up with fangs and it was a little cool and a little scary. We haven’t seen a real one yet. Or a bison yet. Oh!! When we were driving into the park, I said I wanted to see a sheep with really big horns and right around the corner we saw three Big Horned Sheep. They were so amazing. Now I’m going to go have dinner.

Editor’s 3 notes: Dinner was fried mac’n cheese. Seriously.

Everyone should have Dan with them on a road trip (well, unless you’re worried about him falling off high cliffs he insists on climbing.) We’ve had multiple (mostly minor) hiccups and they have been fixed with quiet confidence.

Internet is less available than we might like, so if a day or two passes without a post, please don’t worry about us. Likely we’re just happily in the middle of beautiful nowhere.