Badlands: Off Duty

      As ProRangers a lot of our time is spent on shift and helping around the park, but in our down time we are free to roam and travel. Over the past few weeks in my down time I have been exploring multiple units in the area and got to camp at Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

      Afternoon on a Friday myself and one of the seasonal employees at Badlands decided to go on a long trip to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Though only one state away the drive ended up being over five hours long. On the way up the windshield of his car got cracked from a hail storm, and we had to pull over to wait it out. Thankfully this was only a minor deterrence and we pushed on to the park. Arriving at night we visited the local town of Medora, with only a few hundred people this is a city around here. We grabbed some food at a local pizza shop and continued to our campground in the surrounding National Forest. The next day we broke camp in the morning and loaded up for the day travelling around the park, taking short hikes and seeing plenty of wildlife, mostly bison. We also saw plenty of prairie dogs, and for the first time in my life wild horses. Theodore Roosevelt reminded me of the Badlands with more grass, and after finishing the drive of the scenic loop we decided to begin the long trip back to Badlands.
Note for visitors please remain a safe distance from bison, they have been known to attack visitors.

      Wind Cave National Park

      What originally had started as a day off trip to Rapid City for groceries and lunch turned into a long excursion to Wind Cave National Park. Wind Cave is surrounded by the Black Hills National Forest, and Custer State Park setting up the scene for a beautiful park. Arriving at the park we went to the visitor center and got tickets for the 4:40 cave tour. After meandering around the visitor center we embarked on our journey through the cave. The cave has over 140 miles of surveyed area and is the seventh longest cave in the world. If you ever find yourself in the Rapid City area in South Dakota make sure to come and visit this natural wonder.

Back To Badlands

Campsite in the Backcountry

      During my free time spent at Badlands I have been able to see a lot of new things for the first time, including my first rodeo held in Interior, a Fourth of July fireworks show, and plenty of volleyball (the unofficial sport of Badlands). I also was able to go on a hike with a paleontologist into the backcountry where he was able to show me fossils that had yet to be excavated, helping me to identify fossils in the future whether for visitor information or identifying possible poaching. Most recently I was able to go on a long backcountry excursion hiking over 14 miles through buttes, dried up gorges, and across the plains to camp and head out at 4am before coming onto shift that day. It was a long trip, there were bumps and scrapes, but the views in the Badlands seem to put all the aches and pains out of thought. 

Fossils in the wild

Bighorn sheep watching over his canyon