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The Badlands of South Dakota are quite a sight! They earn their name from the days of land grants by the Federal Govenment in the 1850's or so. At that time, it was possible to apply for a land grant west of the Mississipi and you'd be given 100 acres. After 5 years the government inspector could give you the land to keep if you'd developed it sufficiently (10 acres under cultivation and a homestead). Of course, the land grants were made on the map - the officials had never been there! If you'd been awarded land in this part of South Dakota, you'd been given 'Badlands'. Nothing can be cultivated in this environment.
The Badlands are prairie which has been eroded and has no top soil. It's almost lunar in appearance and is being rapidly eroded. The surface is loose sand. I can understand how the erosion continues, however the initiation of the loss of over burden isn't apparent. There's a river a few miles away and I think that must have been the start of the erosion and the Badlands are moving about 1 mile every 10,000 years or something like that.
The earth below the prairie is layers of soft sediment and sand. The colors of the layers of sediments vary between lime-stone yellow and sand-stone red. This gives a very striped appearance which is very beautiful.
We arrived just before sunset which is the best time to enjoy the Badlands. However we got up at dawn to go for an early morning run. Ali and I attended a lecture and walk lead by Ranger Josh. Very interesting. We also had a nice walk with our friends.
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