Omaha and the Badlands

As you know, our first stop on the way to Yellowstone was my best friend Sarah's house so I got a chance to say goodbye to her in person. I also got to see her turn 21. It was great. The only thing I can say about  the two of us having a long distance best friendship, is that at least I'm getting used to having my bestie far away and I don't feel nervous about us keeping in touch at all. We have this distance thing on lock.

After our visit with Sarah Fae, Daniel and I got on the road and headed to the Badlands. Turns out we are both allergic to Nebraska and caught some kind of...something. I wouldn't say that we were sick, but there were definitely runny noses and sore throats involved. I also found out that I definitely did not have enough layers on if we were going to be back-country hiking, especially if we were going to be traveling more and more north. A quick run to Wal-Mart for another pair of pants solved that and then we were off!

Did you know that both Nebraska and South Dakota are both essentially the same scenery as western Kansas? Well it is. And it's kind of torture to realize this when you have been crazy excited to see horizons that Kansas can't offer. We did see approximately 3,000 signs for some place called Wal Drug, however, and after 6 hours of driving we truly came to hate this mysterious place and vowed never to visit it.

First pretty scenery 

There was some nice scenery on the border of South Dakota. It came out of nowhere :) But it reverted pretty quickly to stupid farmland. Luckily Badlands National Park was only a few hours away.

If I am being honest, the Badlands were the highlight of the trip for me. They honestly made me forget about the previous lack luster scenery we had before. I am actually not too much of a mountain girl. I definitely have a good appreciation for them and think they are beautiful to look at and play in, but I guess you could say they leave me cold ;-) The desert on the other hand really gets me excited though and the Badlands (though not desert) definitely hit the spot for me. When we were pulling up to the park I screamed a little with excitement and once we were in the park I literally could not stop saying wow. I was astonished...amazed...captivated...in complete  and total awe of the formations I was witnessing. There are really no words to explain how incredible I found the Badlands.

We intended to hike the Door, Shelf, and Notch Trails, but due to snow-melt from the storm the previous week we ended up only being able to hike the Door Trail and the Shelf Trail. We also did the Window Trail but it was so short I barely want to count it. The Door was my all time favorite. We got to hike on pretty much unaltered rock and take in the beauty from all angles plus it ended on the edge of a steep cliff. I don't know what is more epic than that!

The trail head :-)

After our hikes we drove along the scenic road to find out where we could camp. After exploring a little we decided it would be pretty difficult to set up anywhere in the back-country so we just used the regular camping area.

The night was COLD. I don't know if my side of the tent had a little extra ventilation or what but Daniel said he was fine and I was shivering most of the night. At one point I thought my toes were going to fall off. It was miserable. But it was still incredible to wake up in such a cool place. I would do it again anytime.

Anyway, after a pretty wretched night we warmed up at the Visitor's Center and looked through the mini museum they had and watched the award winning video they played for us in the theater  Daniel got a shot glass for his collection and we headed on out. All in all it was a delightful start to our adventure.