I have made 3 or 4 trips now to Badlands National Park in South Dakota and while there’s no question, you can see some amazing things from driving through there, the truth is the real beauty lies in getting out of the car and walking, exploring, and discovering formations that you could never see well from the road.
I have shot most of the iconic spots, Ancient Hunter’s Overlook, Panorama Point, or Cedar Pass…and have enjoyed them all, and will likely stop at all of them again down the road, but the greatest appeal for me now is to simply see what else is out there.
This image was a result of walking a bit. Not terribly far, but as you traverse the ridges and mounds, you come to find views like this. It shows the beautiful etched lines in the mud where water has cut into it…and the striations of color in the land is something to behold…they get particularly colorful when the ground is wet from rains…although I’d suggest not going out too far following rain or snow melt…you’ll bring a lot of the land back with you in the form of mud caked to your shoes.