Day 56. 10.22.19. Badlands National Park. Minuteman Missile Silo. Wall. South Dakota

Badlands National Park. 9th National Park.

Badlands geology in short…2 words… Deposition & Erosion.

This hills of the badlands are sedimentary rock. Layers of sand, silt, clay, and volcanic ash from the west have been deposited over the last 75 million years, dating back to the dinosaurs. It is easy to look at the hills and see the layers of sediment that have been deposited over time. In fact this national park is easy to see the Law of Superposition which can be easily described as the oldest rock is on the bottom and the youngest rock is on top.

As the layers of sediment and minerals harden over time, they are subject to erosion. About 500,000 years ago erosion took over as the main geologic process. Erosion from wind and water. In fact the badlands are eroding at a rate of about 1” a year and the badlands may no longer be present in another 500,000 years.

Pretty sure Edwin’s spirit animal is the Bison.

this skeleton head was so heavy, easily 70lbs

The horns from the bighorn sheep are huge. Can you guess how much one would weigh?

The one Vera is holding is 22lbs. They can get up to 30lbs. Their horns weigh more than all their bones together. Imagine wearing 40-60lbs of horns on your head. If you ever wear a motorcycle helmet, your neck can get sore from 2lbs on your head by the end of the day.

Vera was really good at spotting the bighorn sheep

The Notch Trail

The badlands…

This is where Chief Big Foot, battling pneumonia, led his tribe and a remaining part of Sitting Bull’s tribe (after he was shot near the standing rock reservation) down through the badlands to find refuge at the Pine Ridge Reservation. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it and resulted in the Wounded Knee Massacre…will share more tomorrow as we head down there 😢

Pretty sure I was attempting to open my eyes through the wind

“Yellow Mounds”
when the black hills formed and the sea drained away, the black ocean mud was exposed to air and turned the soil yellow

The northern part of the badlands are right near Hwy 90 so we ran up to go see the Minuteman Missile and Wall, South Dakota which supposedly has a must see 20,000 sq.ft. drug store with a jackalope and 5 cents coffee.

The Minuteman Missile 09 site houses a 68 ton missile implemented during the Cold War. It had 200 x the power of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined and could be detonated from anywhere including any plane that had the correct radio frequencies. It could even withstand a direct attack. The door is 90 tons itself. It was put here because South Dakota was considered to have a low enough population so if there was a counterattack there would be low casualties. It is NOT active now.