Badlands on Fire

The Badlands have a rugged beauty not duplicated anywhere else in the midwest. The South Dakota prairie runs up to the edge of what appear to be a series of great gorges that make up the Badlands with the rugged rock formations. Our visit took us over some less traveled roads to a working ranch and the southern area of the Badlands that is less accessible without local direction. These are the highlights of the visit.

Sod Homes - The original settlers on the South Dakota prairie made their homes of sod. One such home has been reconstructed and maintained as it was when the family first lived there. It can be seen on the eastern approach to the route through the Badlands.

Badlands less traveled - On roads less traveled, we entered the South Badlands near Sheep Mountain where it is best to have a vehicle with high clearance, and 4 wheel drive. The road took us to beautiful scenic views of rugged canyons.

Ranching on the prairie - Ranching on the dry prairies in the Badlands of South Dakota. Views of open prairie backed up to canyons and rugged gorges.

Prairie flowers - The best of South Dakota wild flowers.

Badlands on Fire - A number of fires raged through the Black Hills, and selectively hitting ranch land in the Badlands. The fires were created by lightning storms that were not accompanied by sufficient moisture to prevent the blazes. During lightning storms, ranchers would drive to the high point on their ranch to watch for possible a hit and fire on their land. The photo on this page taken on a ranch shows the dark clouds of smoke that were drifting south from the fires in the Black Hills.