Badlands National Park was AMAZING and I’ll be visiting it again on my way back home. I only spent Thursday there and that wasn’t nearly enough time.
Saturday I drove from Rapid City, South Dakota to Yellowstone, where I met up with my pal John. He’d been there since the day before and had visited before (he’s from Colorado), so showed me all his favorite spots and where he’d been having the best luck spotting wildlife. We’d never met in person before (met on Deviant Art) and he was not quite what I expected though I’m not sure what I was expecting- he is SOOO funny and I’m hoping I get a chance to hang out with him again.
Saturday we camped at the Mammoth campground. Chilly but a decent site. Sunday night we went to Madison, which was MUCH colder and was more expensive despite the fact that they did NOT have heated bathrooms (like Mammoth) and the water in the bathrooms was so frigid it hurt. Yes, I’m a wimp.
John left Monday, but we travelled towards the southern end of the park (or was it east?) together and photographed along the way. We said our goodbyes at the entrance/exit and I travelled back towards Mammoth. There was a lot of snow down on that end of the park and I had a lot of fun photographing the blizzard conditions and the crazy bison that like to wander narrow mountain roads.
In Mammoth I met a couple of campers who were also (seperately) solo travelling. We stood around a big campfire, drinking a beer, hoodies up to sheild our heads from the constant freezing drizzle and chatting about our travels. It doesnt sound nearly as fun as it was.
I wrenched my knee last night tripping over nothing on my way to the restrooms, so I’m not hiking for a day or so. Heck, I’m barely walking for a day or so. I’ll spend some time driving but today is mostly off my feet.
Photographed a lot of beautiful things over the past week and I’m really excited to get through them when I get home. Not sure when that will be…I’m sort of deciding day to day whether I’m staying or going. Its supposed to be in the upper 50s this weekend so I’ll stay at least through then….