Badlands National Park

On our recent visit to South Dakota, the lovely Robin and I were thrilled to visit the "Badlands," an area of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, spires, and canyons amid the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States.

While driving through and stopping often in the Badlands National Park, we got to see two bighorn rams (among many grazing along the road, unconcerned with and unimpressed by the humans who stopped to watch and photograph them). Just before I took the photo above, they butted heads but neither seemed really serious or offended; it looked like a playful butt, though I am no expert in butts of any kind.

I also got to hear a rattlesnake that was apparently coiled under wooden steps at one of the many overlook sites (in the panoramic view, above). I tried to coax him out to play but he declined.

It was an amazing visit to many breathtaking scenes. Badlands National Park is in southwest South Dakota, not far from our lodgings in Keystone.