Badlands National Park is a wonderfully different and immensely interesting section of this country. Since I was a small boy, strapping on toy gun belts with authentic western cap guns and a white colored ten-gallon hat, watching John Wayne chase bad-guys wearing the notorious black hats, I heard of “the badlands”. This was that section of the old west, populated by venomous criminals, evil outlaws, rustlers, and train and stagecoach robbers. It was their hideout, a place where only lawmen roamed!!
Not a very hospitable place. Badlands National Park. A mass of canyons that bend and weave through the land with no real direction. Steep, crumbling sandstone slopes that lead down into narrow gullies, at points not wide enough for a person to walk throughImagine being a lawman or bounty hunter trying to find one outlaw hiding somewhere amongst the various twists and turns. Better yet, imagine how you would not get lost yourself in this wonder of Mother Nature’s maze!Looks can be deceptive. Here, grassy meadows lead up to wide valleys . . . that quickly swallow the unprepared. The area is very dry, light rain falls and is just as quickly absorbed into the sand soil while a fast, sudden down pour can quickly become a flash flood, roaring down the canyons without warning.Wind and rain carved peaks line the canyons.It is a beautiful place, quiet and serene. For the adventurous (with a good supply of water) it is also a great place to explore.Dry gulches beckon to searched, to find where and what is at the end.For those who may be less adventurous, the Park Service has a set of nicely maintained and well-marked trails to hike. Some short, some very long, depending on what you feel up to for the day.I personally enjoyed climbing high on the terraced peaks looking for vistas that looked out over the landscape. The various colored layers of the sandstone and naturally created sculptures fascinated me!There is water here, hidden in spots down in the bottom of the canyons. Not much water, but enough to supply mud swallows with building materials to raise families. If you follow the swallows, or buzzing bees, they will often lead to wet sinks that may, with a little work, provide enough water to survive.Green grasses and bushes can also mean that hiding below the surface could be a perched water table . . . if you can dig deep enough in the right spot to find it! The Badlands truly are an American gem worthy of your visit. I ask that if you do go, take your time, get out of your car, walk around the sandstone spires and up the canyons, breathe the clean air, stop and listen to the world here that is alive and thriving around you. Let the badlands sink in for a time . . . and they will stay with you forever in your memory!Come . . . and enjoy!!!Maybe 45 minutes, if that, away from eastern entrance to Badlands National Park is a relatively small National Historic Site. It can be easily overlooked if you are not aware of its significance in the history of this nation. The is the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. It is built not far from a now rendered harmless underground Minuteman Missile silo.
This site, for my generation, attempts to explain the history of the Cold War in America, and how we grew up fearing “the bomb”. One of the most memorable sections of this museum, in my life, was watching the educational commercial that I remember seeing many times on the early television . . . the turtle commercial that explained how to duck and cover (at school under your desk) if there was an imminent nuclear attack. How many of you remember those commercials and conducting those drills in school??
It was interesting for me to watch young families, in the age range of my adult children, attempting to explain to their kids what the threat of “Mutual Assured Destruction” (known as MAD . . . which it is!!!) means and how, even now, that threat continues to exist, even more so since more nations now have nuclear capabilities. It is a sobering reminder of that era and that fear . . . and I honestly wonder why that threat seems to now be blatantly overlooked and ignored, treated as if it a thing of our past! I am again amazed of the old adage that if you ignore your history, you are doomed to repeat it!! This is a part of history too dangerous for us, as a race, as a world, to ignorantly repeat!
The Minuteman Missiles have all been disassembled and the supporting silos have now all been imploded and no longer exist . . . maybe that at least is a step in the right direction!
What the Walrus said . . . 