Our night on the edge of the Badland wall was quiet other than noise from the storm – some lightning and rain but little thunder. Still very windy so we opted to buy coffee in Wall before heading back into the Badlands. I drink “Dandy Blend” in the morning so just one coffee and some hot water for me. We also filled the other to-go cups (we have a total of 6 to-go cups and 3 gallon jugs with us) with ice water for later.
There was another scenic loop to drive that took you into the west end of the Badlands National Park. We saw lots of the little prairie dogs and a few prong horn. Vistas were more rolling hills.
After entering the park we headed to the one and only picnic place. We made some eggs and I made some of my breakfast bars (3 smushed bananas, 2 C oats, 1/2 C peanut butter and 1/4C choc chips) with our aged bananas. It worked out OK but the grill scorched them a little bit. As we were finishing our breakfast a bus of French tourist arrived at the picnic area. There were only 4 or 5 picnic tables (many taken already) for the tourists with their box lunches. They began closing in on our table so we washed everything up quickly. Each time we moved things a little further down on the table another 2 tourists would take a seat. It was pretty funny. We talked with a few that spoke English as we finished packing up.
Back on the park road, we stopped several times for some hiking. Mostly staying on the marked path, but toward dinner time we did some off-path hiking. It was really important to carry a compass because everything looked the same. Finding your way out would be very difficult with a compass.
Another rainy night was brewing but we headed back to “the edge”, Badlands boondocking area. As we entered there was a group of big horn sheep. Rain was coming and we could see it off in the distance creating a rainbow. Once parked we ate another quick dinner and settled into our car bed. The last picture is the view looking out the back window, not too shabby!
