June 24 - Badlands - Castle Trail

I woke up early in the Black Hills and headed to The Badlands. The Black Hills were highly disappointing and I would not recommend them to hikers and backpackers.

The Badlands were not on my original path. Not that there was an original path. I really did leave for two weeks and end up travelling for quite a bit longer. I renamed this site Walkabout because in looking back it really does feel like an aboriginal walkabout. The reason I added The Badlands was a young camper name Alisa I met in Glacier. We had a nice chat in my camp site a Lake Mary and she said "I had to see the Badlands". That was enough for me. She was right. It is an incredible place. Alisa was travelling with her grandparents from Wisconson to Alaska. I'll have to save the trip to Alaska for another Walkabout.

	The camp ground was very nice. I really needed to shave at this point. The bath room had hot water, which was the first and only one on the entire trip. After I got my tent setup I found that I would have enough time to do some hiking, so I set out down the Castle and Medicine Root Trails. It was around a 12-14 mile hike through one of the strangest landscapes I have ever encountered
	The start of the trail and a neat blue bird to go with the moon like surface.
	To me, my pictures are disappointing. At the time there seemed to be so much more color in the landscape.
	It seemed like the hills and mountains were melting into the earth.
	Just some shots from the trail

	I walked around the Fossil Exhibit Trail which was at the turn around point for me. It's part of a scenic drive through. I took no pictures of that area as it was highly disappointing to see what I came to call "The McDonald's Crowd" climbing all over the beautiful hills like it was the FunZone at McDonalds. I wrote an essay on this and it is in the Canyon Lands pictures. The hills were highly scared with trail patterns crisscrossing in every direction. This picture is from a sign headed back to where I started.
	On side of the trail was a prarie and one side were the melting mountains. A strange contrast.
	I tried to get a long panoramic shot.
	I found a couple of cigarette butts on the trail. Notice to smokers. These are not biodegradable! I packed them out and threw them away when I got to the car.
	Yet another shadow pic.
	I took a short detour to Saddle Pass. I sure am glad I did. This was an incredible view and I stood here for at least a half hour pondering the beauty.
	A mushroom.
	Just more of the surrounding landscape.
	I saw this and thought it looked like a snowman in the distance.
	I finished the hike and headed back to camp. The next day I had decided to do a backcountry trip. No permits required. No trails either. Just made sure I had a good map. These are some shots of my tent and the sunset.

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