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Badlands National Park 26 images Created 16 Dec 2013

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  • As an evening storm approached, the sun came out for just a moment over the Badlands National Park. After driving and trying to make it to this overlook, this was the only shot I took before it was gone.
    Moment of Light
  • Even though I love thunderstorms, I was hoping for a clear sky to photograph the milky way since I was only in the Badlands one night. At 10 pm it didn't seem like it was going to happen so I returned to my campsite in Wall. But just before going to sleep at midnight I looked up and could see stars. So I drove the 20 minutes back to the overlook and saw this. Badlands National Park is one of the best places you can go for dark skies with very little light pollution. Although it wasn't very well defined, green airglow is visible in this shot. Even a very small town can have lights that reflect on the clouds and that is what the orange spots are.
    The Clearing
  • A distant lightning storm moves south past the Badlands National Park. The red sky in the west was casting a soft glow on the tops of the cliffs. The black dots in the center are turkey vultures.<br />
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Date Taken: August 7, 2013
    Badlands Lightning
  • The setting sun lights up storm clouds over Badlands National Park. This is a typical late summer evening in the park, when a thunderstorm forms over the Black Hills and moves out over the open prairie.
    Prairie Light
  • After the sun went down over the Badlands, the sky turned a deep pink color. A thunderstorm rolled in as the buttes reflected the color of the sky.
    Badlands Pink
  • A distant lightning storm moves south past the Badlands in South Dakota. The red sky in the west was casting a soft glow on the tops of the cliffs. This was a typical late summer evening when a thunderstorm formed over the Black Hills and moved out across the plains.<br />
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Date Taken: August 7, 2013
    Stormy Badlands
  • This ladder/stairway is part of the Notch Trail in Badlands National Park.
    The Notch Trail
  • A spire rises above the grassland along the Castle Trail in Badlands National Park.
    Badlands Spire
  • Early morning sunlight illuminates a striated portion of the badlands in South Dakota.
    Striped Hills
  • The first light of sunrise paints the top of the badlands with a brilliant orange glow. Located in western South Dakota on the edge of the Great Plains, this harsh landscape is home to bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs, and other wildlife. By definition badlands are semiarid regions with sparse vegetation that experience high rates of erosion. Even though there are other places in the western US and throughout the world known as badlands, the term originated here in Badlands National Park. This is a special place, but unfortunately the person who decided to use it as a landfill didn't think so. When I peered into this steep ravine I spotted a couch that someone had rolled to the bottom.
    Badlands First Light
  • Moonlight illuminates the top of the badlands in South Dakota.
    Summit Pass Moonlight
  • Moonlight illuminates the badlands and grassland in South Dakota.
    Diverging Trail
  • Bats emerged from their hiding places and fluttered about as the rumbles of thunder drew closer. A herd of bighorn sheep and a couple of bison were grazing around me as I awaited the arrival of the storm. The sun had already gone down over the South Dakota Badlands, but the nearly continuous flashes of lightning provided enough light for my camera. The storm was advancing slowly, but once this striated shelf cloud emerged ahead of the rain core, then it picked up speed. I could hear and smell the rain before I felt it. Once the wall of water hit, the downpour wouldn't let up until 3 hours later. This perhaps wasn't the best night to be camping in the Badlands. Although my tent held up well enough with minimal leakage, the entire campground was a muddy mess the next morning.
    Badlands Shelf Cloud
  • Bats emerged from their hiding places and fluttered about as the rumbles of thunder drew closer. A herd of bighorn sheep and a couple of bison were grazing around me as I awaited the arrival of the storm. The sun had already gone down over the South Dakota Badlands, but the nearly continuous flashes of lightning provided enough light for my camera. The storm was advancing slowly, but once this striated shelf cloud emerged ahead of the rain core, then it picked up speed. I could hear and smell the rain before I felt it. Once the wall of water hit, the downpour wouldn't let up until 3 hours later. This perhaps wasn't the best night to be camping in the Badlands. Although my tent held up well enough with minimal leakage, the entire campground was a muddy mess the next morning.
    Out of the Darkness
  • A small herd of bighorn sheep were grazing along one of the overlooks at Badlands National Park.
    Munching on Grass
  • A lone bison grazes in the evening light in Badlands National Park. Cowbirds like to hang around bison because they stir up insects as they graze.
    Bison and Cowbird
  • This bison bull used a post to scratch an itch on his belly.
    Scratching an Itch
  • In front of me was a rainbow, lightning to the left, a colorful sunset behind me, and to my right were baby bighorn sheep prancing around. When the downpour ended and the sun came out, it was an overwhelming few minutes and I didn’t know where to point my camera. I was just lucky to be at this overlook in Badlands National Park. When the storm was closing in I made a bad decision to turn down a very muddy road. But somehow my car made it back out after spinning the wheels for 5 minutes. My last 2 visits to this South Dakota national park were both very short and involved waiting out heavy thunderstorms, which isn't all that enjoyable in a tent. One of these days I'll return when the weather is actually nice. But bad weather makes for the best pictures.
    Badlands Bow
  • In front of me was a rainbow, lightning to the left, a colorful sunset behind me, and to my right were baby bighorn sheep prancing around. When the downpour ended and the sun came out, it was an overwhelming few minutes and I didn’t know where to point my camera. I was just lucky to be at this overlook in Badlands National Park. When the storm was closing in I made a bad decision to turn down a very muddy road. But somehow my car made it back out after spinning the wheels for 5 minutes. My last 2 visits to this South Dakota national park were both very short and involved waiting out heavy thunderstorms, which isn't all that enjoyable in a tent. One of these days I'll return when the weather is actually nice. But bad weather makes for the best pictures.
    End of the Storm
  • After waiting out a heavy thunderstorm at the Pinnacles Overlook, the sun began to come out. Beautiful golden light illuminated everything, a double rainbow appeared with lightning, and bighorn sheep wandered around. It was an overwhelming few minutes as I didn't know where to point my camera.
    Weathered
  • Badlands are a type of terrain that experiences rapid erosion, estimated to be an inch per year at Badlands National Park. Much of that erosion happens during thunderstorms like this one. When the downpour first started I was disappointed because I didn’t get any shots of the storm structure beforehand. But then there was a break in the rain. It lasted just long enough for me to rush back to this overlook and capture the dark menacing clouds above surrounded by two blueish-green rain cores. Hidden in the ravine below were big horn sheep climbing the steep muddy terrain. The second wall of water hit even heavier than the first and dropped visibility to almost zero. A local told me they had never seen a spring with more rain. And they were right, 2019 was to become the wettest year on record in western South Dakota.
    Wall of Water
  • This storm to the south had some of the best structure of the year. But I decided to stay in the Badlands this day instead of chasing it. At least it made for a nice sunset here underneath the anvil.
    Spreading Anvil Sunset
  • June is a great time of year to see baby bighorn sheep (lambs) at Badlands National Park. They are very agile and it's fun to watch them dash around the steep terrain.
    Bonding Moment
  • June is a great time of year to see baby bighorn sheep (lambs) at Badlands National Park. They are very agile and it's fun to watch them dash around the steep terrain.
    Big World Little Sheep
  • A supercell lurked in the darkness. Every few seconds a flash would illuminate the thundercloud and show a silhouette of the sharp spires of the Badlands. This was the 4th storm I watched this evening. Rumbles of thunder slowly grew louder as yet another storm approached from the west and threatened to block the view of this one. Badlands National Park is one of my favorite places to capture storms. Even when they’re 100 miles away, the views here are excellent. And distant storms are preferred when I’m camping. The Badlands are very exposed to the elements. There is no escaping the rain, wind, and mud. An earlier downpour soaked me to the skin but the wind that followed dried me in minutes. The mud is the type that cakes to the bottom of your shoes making every footstep heavier. But a few hours in the hot sun and the mud is baked dry. At the time of this picture tennis-ball sized hail was reported in the Pine Ridge Reservation to the south. The lights are from the metropolis of Interior, population 94. The lightning was mostly cloud-to-cloud; this was the only strike I captured out of 500 shots.
    Strike Beyond Interior
  • I arrived in Badlands National Park just in time to watch the first of 4 thunderstorms move through.
    Welcome to the Badlands