American Gam

“Grow through what you go through.” ~ Eric Butterworth

The day started with me taking a hike from the Upper Prairie down a wash into the Lower Prairie to miraculously find the colorfully painted Logan’s Legacy Rock.

After that we left our campsite to drive through The Badlands. Stopping at the ranger station I was able to secure my National Parks Pass for being a U. S. Army Military Police Veteran, which gives us access to all of America’s National Parks for life. This will come in handy over the next five months as we explore the surrounding country and its numerous national parks.

The Badlands Loop Road, which is Highway 240, takes you from the town of Wall to the town of Cactus Flat. The road snakes through the North Unit of Badlands National Park. Our destination on this day was the town of Interior some fourteen miles from our location to the Cedar Pass Lodge for lunch.

The first wildlife we saw on this drive was a herd of female Pronghorn. After reading about them I learned that Pronghorn are ungulates, or hoofed animals, and are very similar to deer and antelope in appearance, but are actually neither. They are the last surviving member of a group called the Antilocapridae. Yeah, I can’t pronounce it either. All of the other members of this species have gone extinct. Their closest living relatives today are actually giraffes and okapi. The Pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in America with top speeds of fifty-five miles per hour!

The drive through the Badlands is a winding surreal road through a land that seems like another planet.

We passed by this gentle giant going to and coming from lunch. This patch of grass seemed to be his dining choice for the day.

Upon returning to our little home on the prairie we were treated to a full moon and a magnificent sunset…

And the next morning we had a visitor…a solo female Pronghorn who seemed to have lost her herd. She climbed up the same path I had climbed down on the previous morning, perhaps to look down into the valley and find her kin.

From here on the prairie we headed to the Black Hills to our new, temporary home as work/campers for the KOA campground located five miles behind Mount Rushmore, which is an hour and a half from here on The Wall. We will be exploring this part of the country once we settle into our new summer home and, hopefully, provide you with some interesting and inspiring views of America. 🇺🇸

I hope you see why the Badlands aren’t so bad.

The gam continues…