Badlands – Riveted

The Badass Badlands Hexacopter Video!

Laura Domela — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:33:23 +0000

Yesterday, as we were leaving the Badlands, we pulled over at a viewpoint so Kevin could stress me out for five solid minutes while he flew the hexacopter and camera out over some of the craziest, jaggiest parts of the Badlands…the part where if there's any malfunction and the thing goes down there is no getting any of it back. I'm not sure why this stresses me out more than it stresses Kevin out, but it does.

The first two starts out over the abyss both gave a blinking red light which meant a battery issue…so he brought it back in and changed batteries both times and started again. I told him I saw it as a sign that he might not want to do this particular flight. He just checked the third battery and went right back out there.

Bonus find while Kevin was looking for music to go with his video: music by a local Portland band we've seen live a few times called 3 Leg Torso!

Exploring the Badlands

Laura Domela — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:10:31 +0000

We walked over to the Visitor Center to get our National Park Pass this morning and Kevin asked the park ranger which hikes were good. The park ranger said, "I don't know. I'm not much of a hiker." That was it. He pushed her a little bit with more questions ("Which hikes have you heard are good, then?") and she reluctantly pointed to a couple on the map. Hm. Some park ranger! Also, the campground only takes cash (exact change $10/night) and she couldn't give us any change so we headed into the town of Interior and got some iced tea and some change at a little market on the corner.

Interior is a tiny, tiny town.

It's got two churches, a couple of tiny stores, and this tiny tiny jail:

We came back to the campground and paid for our spot for another night, then headed out to drive the scenic loop. It's really, very scenic!

We stopped at Roberts Prairie Dog Town to see some of the little guys poppin' up:

This eagle was trolling for some slow prairie dogs:

A little further down the road we saw a herd of bighorn sheep:

Then after all that scenic stuff, we ended up stopping (finally, after all those crazy signs) to see Wall Drug. We grabbed some lunch in town (the town of Wall, South Dakota) and stopped at a little grocery store and then headed back toward camp. We stopped in at the visitor center for the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site and looked at their exhibits and watched a short informative video. I think we're going to go back in the morning for the tour. We'll get to see the missile silo, and go down into the Underground Launch Control Center.

We stopped at a couple of trail heads before we got back to the campground and did a little hiking.

So you walk out first on this little boardwalk deal and then there's a spot where you can take some steps down to the terrain. (Being ware of rattlesnakes, of course, as the sign said.) This is where we were hiking:

The "trail" is marked with these 10-inch tall markers that are numbered….when you get to the first one, you scan around the landscape for the next one, and so on. It's a great way to mark a trail like this (and maybe one of the only ways it would work in this crazy terrain)…plus, it makes the hike feel a little like a game.

We're back at camp now and planning to grill up some salmon and zucchini for dinner tonight (and probably get a jump on tomorrow's work day so we can go see the missile thing!)

Badlands Aerial

Laura Domela — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 14:18:22 +0000

Kevin got a nice shot of our surroundings this morning with the HexacopterCam. (Click image to enlarge…we're on the right)

(Posted by Laura)

Cedar Pass Campground in the Badlands, South Dakota

Laura Domela — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 12:54:27 +0000

Look where we woke up this morning!

Lovely, isn't it? We went for a short drive up to the pass and snapped a few photos while the sun was still early and low. This is looking back down toward the campground:

When we got in last night we were the only ones in this campground loop. (There's only one loop that's open for winter camping here, and it has four spots.) The campsites are basically just wide spots in the road where you can pull over next to a covered picnic table. (Actually, each spot has three picnic tables…these are apparently normally used as group campsites.) There are no hookups in this loop, but I think in the other loops there are some spots with electricity.

We've got great cell service here, too (AT&T, Verizon).

Kevin's charging batteries so he can fly the hexacopter here in a bit. Hopefully later on we'll have some nice aerials to post!

We’re in the Badlands!

Laura Domela — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 21:47:48 +0000

We got here right around sunset…just enough light to see how incredibly cool this place is going to look tomorrow.

Our drive was easy (a bit long) and uneventful today from Le Mars, Iowa, to Luverne, Minnesota, and onto the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Lots of this:

What is UP with all the fireworks for sale? For the past few states we've been in there are fireworks stores EVERYWHERE. These folks must like to blow some shit up.

We stopped in Mitchell, South Dakota to have some lunch and check out the Corn Palace. This is the Corn Palace:

And this is the close up of one of the corn murals on the side of the building:

It's pretty remarkable, really. It's also pretty funny that everywhere it says "Corn Palace" it also says "World's Only." Um, yeah.

We passed the very cool "Man Walking Dinosaur" skeleton in Murdo, South Dakota:

We also passed the "Largest Bull Head" or something like that. It's huge, and those little skeletal upright sheep at the base of it kinda creep me out:

The texture in this shot was cooler in black and white, so here it is:

Tomorrow: sightseeing around the Badlands!