Badlands National Park

Beautiful. I love that park, even after the time I woke up in the morning and discovered I'd pitched my tent right next to a fresh buffalo chip.

If it's fresh, it's not a "chip" yet!

I've been there...very cool.

The rainbow on the rocks is even more fascinating to unweave than the one above it.

Nathan said: Beautiful. I love that park, even after the time I woke up in the morning and discovered I'd pitched my tent right next to a fresh buffalo chip.

The badlands have excellent fossils of rhinos, horses, and many more.
These creatures were killed by volcanic workings and perhaps some burial by moving sediment.
this creationist sees the fossils here as post flood about a few centuries later. Not the biblical flood.
The area is virtually a bone bed graveyard. i understand everytime it rains there's another fossil uncovered.
its badlands I understand because the unique creation of it didn't and doesn't allow vegatation to flourish.

Robert Byers said: The badlands have excellent fossils of rhinos, horses, and many more. ... its badlands I understand because the unique creation of it didn't and doesn't allow vegatation to flourish.

Love it. So tell us, Byers, what exactly did these “rhinos, horses, and many more” herbivorous animals eat if there was no vegetation?

I will send future comments by the Byers troll to the BW; please do not feed it.

As a sedimentologist one becomes very aware of the differences in the consistency of various types of sedimentary rock. It was on a field trip to Badland National Park when I was a geology grad student (University of NE-Lincoln, back in the late 80’s) that I learned a lesson that could have turned out to be quite painful.

I was running down the side of a rather steep ravine to catch up with some friends, I was keeping a fairly decent speed as my hiking boots sank just slightly into the loosely compacted White River Group rocks. As I progressed down the hill, I took note of the change in color between the White River and the underlying Cretaceous (Pierre Shale) rocks. I did not anticipate the degree of firmness and very quickly picked up speed. I was only successful in not ending up head-first at the base of the ravine by zig-zagging as I ran, thus keeping my balance until I was able to stop at the bottom.

Fun trip, exciting times! Definitely a lesson learned when zipping down a ravine made up of such different rock types. Also, it pains me to hear people say that the badlands are “ugly”, it doesn’t matter if I am in the big badlands of South Dakota or the badlands of Nebraska, I think these areas are among the most beautiful anywhere.

I also remember a nice little natural history museum, the Hot Springs mammoth site, and, of course, Wall Drug Store.

At the mammoth site, volunteers from Earth Watch were sitting scrunched up, in the shade but still very hot and dry, carefully excavating fossils with little tools and brushes. The hard work of science...hope IDers are reading this.

Also, it pains me to hear people say that the badlands are “ugly”, it doesn’t matter if I am in the big badlands of South Dakota or the badlands of Nebraska, I think these areas are among the most beautiful anywhere.

The Badlands are awe-inspiring.

How were these sediments laid down if they are being eroded now?

How did something happen in the past if something else is happening now?

Things change.

vreejack said: How were these sediments laid down if they are being eroded now?

vreejack said: How were these sediments laid down if they are being eroded now?

Loki? Can't we send that guy back to Scandinavia where he came from?

mrg said:

vreejack said: How were these sediments laid down if they are being eroded now?

I call Loki troll.

Karen S. said:

Love it. So tell us, Byers, what exactly did these “rhinos, horses, and many more” herbivorous animals eat if there was no vegetation?

They ate each other-- remember it was after the Fall. Or they ordered out. btw, I can see grass in the photo! Robert, they were called badlands because it was difficult territory to cross.

Robert Byers said: For some reason the troll accusation is back in the courts. They never say why? Whats a nice Canadian boy to do. Anyways. I don't mean the modern badlands is relevant to the world that was fossilized. That was a post flood world of a few centuries later. A tropical time. The badlands are bad today because the volcanic outpourings so devastated the area stuff never grew back.

OK, thinking faster than typing:

"Can you see why the scientists here, who devote their careers to really FINDING OUT how nature works and what happened in the past, are pissed when they are summarily dismissed by folks like you with a wave of the hand (and often a sneer) and a “just-so” story made up in 30 seconds?

He can't tell when he's making things up, folks. You saw it here first.

Dave Luckett said: He can't tell when he's making things up, folks. You saw it here first.