In July, 2007, I took a cross country driving trip from central TX to the Pacific Northwest, on the way going through SD and stopping for much of one day at that state's Badlands National Park. I took a number of pictures of its unique and starkly beautiful landscape and have chosen several to feature here. Dry and often cold as they appear today, the Badlands began up to 75 million years ago as the muddy bottom of a warm, shallow sea. Giant swimming reptiles, mosasaurs, inhabited these waters. The remains of that period now are preserved in the deepest, or Pierre Shale, Badlands formations. After the climate changed, debris from the Black Hills, west of the Badlands, washed into the valley left by the now drained seaway. Such layers were alternated with a series of ash sheets from multiple volcanic eruptions, also to the west. Still further layers in the higher, more recent Badlands formations were left by river silts and clays or soils from the thick forests that grew in the river valleys. Subsequent erosion, by both wind and water, have led to the features visible today.

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