July 2nd, 2006
Devil's Tower, Mt. Rushmore & Badlands of South Dakota

For a change, we decided to do the "touristy" stuff the next day. We bid goodbye to Medora early in the morning and drove through "civilization" - read traffic, to Devil's Tower Monument. Our early start allowed us to get there by 9:00 am. The Tower, yes the same one featured in "Last Encounters of the third kind", erupting through the ground higher than any other natural body around does look like something out of this world. It's not actually a single block of rock, but rather a collection of hexagonal thin rocks - much like a stack of pencils held together. What was even more amazing was the fact that the tower didn't actually emerge out of the ground, but rather the ground around it slowly eroded away over the millenniums, leaving the harder, non-erosive collection of rocks behind. We walked around the rock along with a Park Ranger and got to glean great information about it. After our son had managed to finagle enough money from us to buy a crossword puzzle of the Rock, we started our drive to Mount Rushmore.

We drove through heavy traffic to the Black Hills region. The road was lined with Casinos - what better way to celebrate the Americanism of the monument than with Casinos! The town adjacent to monument looked like a carnival - tacky, loud and garish. As we parked in the huge parking lot right next to the monuments, we got a glimpse of the sculptures carved into the mountain. They looked so small that I was convinced that they were artist's model of some kind. I was sure that the access to the monument would involve some kind of a climbing through the hills followed by a magnificent sight of the carvings far in the distance. Anyways, my husband and I (tailed by our son), argued our way to the monument (or artist's model), depending on whom you believed. Guess what! My husband was right - that was it - walkway leading right to the faces - the real thing, not a model!

As we continued our drive to Badlands of South Dakota, I took a nice long nap, while my husband and our son counted the miles down to the Wall Pharmacy in Wall, S. Dakota (Free ice water for all and free coffee for honeymooners). A quick stop at the pharmacy revealed a huge strip mall - all associated with the Wall pharmacy, selling everything from plastic trinkets to clothes to furniture - what a pharmacy!!!

Since this distance turned out to be a lot shorter than we expected, we reached Badlands National Park in late afternoon. We had to drive through the park to get to our Lodge on the eastern end. The drive revealed magnificent colors of the Badlands canyons. Wind had carved windows, arches and doors through the delicate sands of the Badland hills creating a landscape too amazing to describe. It was hot, hot, hot, but we duly stopped at every marker (given that the marker patrol was sitting behind us in the van), walked on the permitted walkways (given that the Boy Scout was right with us) and I spent a few rolls on my trustworthy Canon SLR - trying on different lenses and filters. It was truly a beautiful place. The lodge overlooked the outer hills of the badlands. Bison and Deer roamed the valley separating the lodge and the badlands, casting strong silhouettes from the setting sun. I sat with my laptop typing up the notes while savoring the site of setting sun on the earth colored hills.

July 1st, 2006
Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The lovely town of Medora looks like Hollywood's set for a Western movie. With its saloon like stores, old-style ice cream, soda pop and chocolate shops, it's a step into the past without its inconveniences. With a quick breakfast at one of the quaint joints, we ventured into the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The early morning coolness was still in the air as we drove into the North Dakota Badlands and badlands they are with a rough, untamed beauty of barren landscape. We drove through the endless wind and water carved canyons, taking a stop here and there for short walks into the wilder area. Ben was besotted with the prairie dog colonies. They were especially active in the morning, bobbing up and down their holes, meditating on their hind legs and generally acting like prairie dogs.

Cool morning air soon gave way to hot scorching early afternoon. This is when we decided to venture into the badlands for a longer hike. We could hear the insects buzzing and Joe suspected that he heard a rattler in a distance. So, it was with some trepidation that we started the hike. In an effort to keep on the narrow path, we walked single line, with me leading the effort. I had my hat down to shelter me from the sun and plodded along, head bent. We came up a short hill, when I heard Joe calling my name in panic. I responded and immediately heard a snort – looking up; I saw a wild bison staring at me only a few feet away. All that registered in my mind was big, black eyes and mud-caked mammoth shoulders. It snorted again – I forgot all rules about walking away slowly, turned and started pushing everybody behind me into a jog. Thankfully. Joe still had his head on his shoulder. He grabbed me to slow me down. Meanwhile, Ben was bobbing up and down, trying to figure out what was going on. Amidst this confusion, we managed to slowly back away. On our way back, we stopped at one of the hills and looked back. The bison was still there, guarding its territory.

After this adventure, all thoughts of hiking disappeared from my mind. We enjoyed the car tourism for a change, capturing wild horses, bisons, mountain goats and isolated wild flowers in my camera.

We took a quick trip through the painted canyon and northern section of North Dakota badlands and called it a day. Upon reaching Medora, I found that I had lost my prescription glasses somewhere along the way. Without the contact lenses, I only had the prescription sunglasses that I had been wearing during the day. With complete disregard for the stares that I received from country folks around me, I continued to use those for the rest of the evening – being blind as a bat without them.

Where in this wilderness will I find a place that can get me prescription glasses at a short notice?