Wall (Badlands National Park)

I was out early to catch the morning sun on the Yellow Mounds on the Badlands National Park loop road. The temperature was in the single digits, and that was not counting wind chill. I was wearing pretty much every piece of clothing I own. The only thing that made a few minutes out of the car even tolerable were the hand warmers that S gave me at the beginning of the year when I visited her in Tucson. And both the roads and walkways had re-frozen, making everything very slick. While the park is open, the are very clear that they do no winter maintenance. Anyway, salt would not be a good idea in this pristine environment.

I was, however, rewarded with beautiful light. I saw a few fauna, but not the bighorn sheep I was hoping for. They staff at the visitor center had given me a couple of locations to check, but they failed to make an appearance either in the morning or the afternoon. I drove the park loop twice, the retired to my room to start processing.

Tomorrow I will explore the Sage Creek rim road the circles another part of the park.

Additional images are found in the Gallery .