Jack and I left Sioux Falls this morning after stocking up at the farmer’s market, and meandered off the beaten path to visit the Laura Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet. Bit of a tourist trap, but we enjoyed the interpretive video and then stopped for lunch in town, saw a couple of the original stores and the house where they wintered when they first went to Silver Lake.

Eschewing the highway we struck out on Highway 14 through Pierre and down into Wall. (No, we did NOT visit the drug store that had signs every mile for 96 miles.) We reached the Badlands just as a storm was brewing. I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life, and I’ve seen a fair few beautiful things.

So here are the photos, because sometimes we used words and sometimes we use pictures.

We saw two different herds of sheep, including one with babies. They seemed to like the rain.

I’m pretty sure he thought we couldn’t see him.The colors after the storm were amazing. South Dakota is full of different layers of color. In the Appalachians, we have hues of blue and green in the Smoky Mountain layers, but out here it’s some unexpected color combinations.

Jack said it looked like a moonscape.

After the storm

During the storm

I couldn’t help wondering if the blanket patterns you see on indigenous people’s handiwork were inspired by these lines.

The storm rolling away

Today was the first time we didn’t see people with their phones out hunting Pokemons. Whether there were any in there or not, they were second to the Badlands’ beauty.