Dunes and Dinos - Sawyer, Michigan 7.30.24

 

Badlands  5.19.21

On the way west from Minnesota, we stopped at the rest stop where the Dignity statute is installed.  This spectacular 50-foot depiction of a Native American woman with a star quilt honors the native people of the West.  It is stainless steel with some of the quilt’s diamonds painted in shades of blue.  It is good to view from a distance, but you can also walk right up to it. 

Badlands National Park is one place we have visited more than once, the last time in 2014.  Part of the draw this year was to meet up with some activist friends from Chicago who were coming for the weekend.  We saw the park separately, because they had driven straight through and needed some rest.  Driving through the park, we found it interesting that we remembered some things very well, some hardly at all.  The fantastic, folded and layered sandstone formations are always fascinating, and we saw an area with multicolored red and yellow sand hills set off by green grass below.  The bison were out in force and LCR was able to get up close and personal photos in safety by climbing onto the luggage rack on top of the truck, which was the reason for bringing it.  We did some hiking also.  The Badlands is one of those parks, though, where you can actually see a lot of it from the car or close to it. 

We spent part of this drive on a “high-clearance road.”  This involved LCR attempting to navigate the SUV along wheel tracks that appeared to have been there since the days of covered wagons and changed little since then.  Sometimes the deep ruts propelled the vehicle in directions we did not necessarily want to go, like an auto thrill ride.  LCR stated this activity was “fun.”  Clearly, that word is one with flexible meanings.   During this time I mostly sat gripping my knees and trying to shift my weight in whatever direction the vehicle was NOT leaning.  It was exhausting for all concerned, more enjoyable for some than for others!

I’m frequently asked, by people who want to experience nature but do not consider themselves big hikers, what are some good natural wonders that can be seen from a car or with a short walk. The Badlands loop road is one.  Arches National Park is another, as is the wildlife loop in Custer State Park, which is not far from the Badlands.

In the evening we met our friends for dinner.  They were tent camping and it was raining.  We also discovered there was only take-out available at the park’s café, due to the pandemic, so we all headed back to our campsite.  Moving a few things around allowed us to accommodate two guests for this impromptu dinner.  They had bought beer and we had wine, and we all enjoyed Indian tacos.  Basically tacos wrapped in Native American fry bread instead of tortillas, these are a tasty and filling Southwest staple.  They were delicious and you could really taste that the fry bread was fresh.  It was a congenial time but our friends left fairly early as they wanted to see the sunset from a certain vantage point in the park.  Since it was still raining a bit and in any case solid overcast, we declined. 

On Sunday we visited the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.  There are three parts – the Visitor’s Center, Delta-01 which is the command center, Delta-09 which is the actual missile silo.  There is a disabled training missile in a Plexiglas dome.  A cellphone guided tour is available for the Delta sites. You call the number and follow the numbered sections. It was a novel way to get a lot of information across, but without requiring reading a lot of wordy posters. The tour clearly tells how the missiles would have worked as well as what was done with them after the 1991 nuclear disarmament treaty.  The entire concept of Mutually Assured Destruction was explored.  It was sobering to know that these missiles were there for 30 years without most people knowing about it, but also, that a new generation of ICBMs is still operational, albeit with treaties in place to (it is hoped) provide some regulation.

We went down a road labeled “Old Ne Road,” which turned out to mean “Old Northeast Road.”  It was only partially shown on one of our maps and absent from the others.  It is an odd feeling to be on a road with no other vehicles or people, and no indication of where it is going.  Gradually the rock formations became less dramatic and less frequent, until we reached farmland again and eventually the 90, going back into the park.  We had come in a large circle. 

Finishing off the evening with photos at a lookout with a boardwalk jutting out over the canyon below, we saw a young man dressed only in cargo shorts and hiking boots, running and leaping across the formations below.  Some of the rock peaks have what appear to be paths across the tops and this runner apparently knew where these were.  He stopped from time to time at what appeared to be the edge of a precipice to take a selfie, then ran off to another peak.  His name was Jonah, which we knew because someone from above on the walkway, presumably a family member, kept calling out to him to stand still so they could get a picture. He clearly had done this many times before but still, those of us on the boardwalk were almost afraid to watch.  It was a dazzling display of daring and athletic prowess, or possibly stupidity ,,,

The next day, Monday the 17^th, we had to work around several zoom meetings.  In the afternoon we visited the Prairie Homestead, which is not part of the park but a separate attraction.  It is a historic claim with some of the original buildings and furnishings still intact, including the dirt-floored sod house, built in 1909.  I had learned years ago that sod houses typically had a life of 6-7 years.  It is still unclear to me how this one has held up so long.  The heavy timbered roof might be the reason.  The house was lived in up until the 1930s, and the woman who lived there with her family apparently often spoke in later years of how much she missed it and how happy she was there.  That is remarkable to me because it seems it was a hard life, with crops always in danger from weather and pests, limited water, and the constant wind over the plains which I find exhausting.  The homestead also has the distinction of the only white prairie dog town.  Most prairie dogs are tan with white bellies and tails, but these are white.  One was rescued from poisoning from a farm in the area and brought to the homestead, and 30 years later the entire colony was white.  They are not albino; they have black skin and white hair, like polar bears.

In winding up our exploration of the Badlands, we found an off-road area, the Baja Motorized Use Area, with tracks indicating it is frequented by dirt bikers and ATVs.  Once again, bouncing along barely visible yet somehow deep tracks is a certain type of “fun,” but we went forth and somehow emerged unscathed, with very mud-encrusted tires and undercarriage, looking like we had been in an endurance run.

May 18, 2021 – Wounded Knee Memorial

The Pine Ridge reservation area is beautiful country, which surprised me.  I was expecting it to be brown and dry like the Badlands, but the Badlands eventually give way to gently rolling hills and pine forests. The site of the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890 is marked only with a red metal sign with white lettering, telling the story of the last armed conflict between the Sioux and the U.S Army.  Deadly on both sides and ill-conceived, the massacre is still deeply felt by Native Americans.  Locals hang out in the parking lot selling handicrafts.  We were approached by a woman named Valerie, who apologized for removing her mask, but was otherwise difficult to understand because she was toothless. She pointed out to us the sign and the cemetery across the street and told us where we stood relative to the encampment.  We bought a beaded rawhide dream catcher from her for the car. Other cars approached us with similar offers, but we declined. 

The cemetery appears to be still in use. There is a huge fenced mass grave in the center.  The fences and graves are festooned with brightly colored strips of cloth, artificial flowers and, in the case of veterans, American flags.  It is sobering how many of the graves show birth and death dates indicating a short life span.  Still the cemetery seems almost cheerful with the flags, flowers and multi-hued strips blowing in the constant wind, like a miniature celebration.

When we pulled into the campground at Belle Fourche, SD in the evening, I was thrilled at the quiet, the beautiful lake, birds singing, the red and gold sunset.  I looked forward to doing my yoga outside in the morning.  At 3 am I was awakened by howling winds.  My first thought was, they have a lot of tornadoes out here, right?  But I looked out my window and the stars were bright and clear as ever.  Not a thunderstorm, not even a cloud, just wind, roaring into the trailer at around 16 mph.  It continued into the morning, too fast to do yoga comfortably (the mat keeps flapping around) or for the bike ride we had considered.  By around 11 the winds had died down but by that time we were prepared to move on.  Oh well, such is weather on the Great Plains!