The Badlands
It's so hard to believe that just a month ago, the weather was in the 70s and 80s in South Dakota and I was having my first encounter with The Badlands National Park. It was honestly one of the most mind blowing experiences with nature that I have had. The pictures do not do it justice or capture its immensity. Even with the weakest imagination you can close your eyes and envision massive glaciers carving their paths through these rocks, or dinosaurs roaming the canyons, and more recently, Native American tribes crossing the Great Plains following the bison and fighting for their land. We bought the Annual National Parks pass for $80 because that would cover some of the other parks we were going to visit (not Mount Rushmore, though). Then we just started driving, stopping wherever there was a good photo opportunity and a chance to walk these rocks ourselves. There is always the chance of wildlife, like the flock (?) of bighorn sheep we saw, or the herd of goats that got a little