Badlands National Park

After the Petrified Gardens, we were off to the Badlands National Park.  Wow what an experience that was!  So if you read about the petrified gardens, and the Black Hills, ( which is a national Forest), were formed hundreds of thousands of years ago, through deposition and erosion.  The Badlands did not begin eroding until about 500,000 years ago when water began to cut down through the rock layers, carving fantastic shapes into what had been a flat floodplain.  The ancient fossil soils, buried for millions of years, became exposed once again.  Erosion is ongoing.  On average the badlands erode one inch each year.  Fossils are a big part of the park as well.  Scientists have been using the park as an "outdoor laboratory" for over 150 years.  Fossils give a broader picture of life in prehistoric North America.  The Badlands has shown to have lots of fossils from vertebrate mammals.  Also some of the land in and around the park contains spiritual and historical importance for the local Lakota Indian community.  Well we had the opportunity to stay inside the park over night.  They have a campground where pretty much you have a little site, with just a picnic table with a small roof over it.  The campground was pretty full.  The bathrooms were really nice regular bathrooms.  We went and saw the night Sky program at an outdoor amphitheater.  That was amazing!  We learned so much about identifying stars, and constellations.  We found out that the big and little dipper, are not constellations.  They actually are a part of bigger constellations.  Also there is a star bigger than the sun.  We got to use huge telescopes that allowed us to visibly see the moon!  We could see the craters on the moon's surface! Amazing!  We also saw Saturn and it's rings, a double star, and a new galaxy!  So cool and totally worth staying up for.  The next morning we drove around a bit, stopping at different pull off spots to get out and walk around the different rock formations.  The one part was a fossil exhibit where they had found many fossils.  The park is considered one of the world's richest mammal fossil beds.  We highly recommend this park to everyone!  Did I forget to mention about the park's wildlife?  Coyote, Porcupine, Bighorn Sheep, Bobcat, American Bison, Prairie Rattlesnake (venomous), prairie dog, Black footed ferret (one of the world's rarest mammals), the swift fox, and the Black-billed magpie (bird).  We only saw some birds and bunnies.  We did kind of wish we saw a rattlesnake in the wild.  Not in a threatening kind of way, but more of  a discovery channel kind of way.