Greetings. Way back in September, well before this early winter weather came about, Sarah and OZB took a much needed vacation and traveled west. The primary destination being Yellowstone National Park, but we stopped at a few locations along the way. How I loved Badlands! With nearly 250,00 acres, this place is worthy of investing two weeks of vacation on alone. A couple of days was not enough. Wildlife and landscape abound, so your chances of finding something of photographic interest are high. The park is laid out to perfection as well. A single paved road leads you through the heart of the park, with a couple of minor roads leading to loops in separate sections.
To get the image above, I took a “trail” down one of the earthen crests of the area. Towards the end of the trail, the amount of scat I observed made me realize that I was on a trail made by Bighorn Sheep! Sarah took a shot of my better side while I was on one of these trails. Yeah, you wish you could rock the boots, socks and shorts as well as I did here.
The beautiful patterns of erosion!
The prairie dogs at places like Roberts Prairie Dog Town and other colonies throughout the park provide endless entertainment. Such fascinating creatures.
Other wildlife were to be found as well. We spotted our first Pronghorn in Badlands NP, but this image was taken in at Custer State Park in the nearby Black Hills.
Bighorn Sheep were somewhat abundant, and this female gave me a good looking over.
That is all for now. I will have a couple more posts coming soon from other locations along our trip. Until then, you can view more images from the Badlands and surrounding sites in South Dakota on my Flickr.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 
Perfect! Don’t keep us waiting for Part 2!
I haven’t checked in here in a while (SO.MANY.BIRD PICTURES), but this post is amazing. I’ve been waiting for you to get out west for awhile now. I’m from St. Louis, but now work for Colorado Parks & Wildlife studying prairie dogs, so for me this post is fantastic. Those are some pretty fat black tails you got there. I can’t even claim to be half the photographer you are (although, I do enjoy taking picture of the places I visit – https://www.flickr.com/photos/79350152@N07/), but, like you, I have a particular interest in the St. Francois Mountains. I’ll be in St. Louis for much of the winter. Next time you’re heading down there give me a shout. Keep up the good work!
Austin,
Thanks so much for the message! I really enjoyed looking through your Flickr account, and I think your images are very well done and interesting. I would love to hear more about the work you are doing in Colorado. Bill