Mako Sica

Badlands National Park is a beautiful haunting place, almost like another planet. I can see why the Dakota Indians called this place Mako Sica (mako, land; sica, bad).  It doesn't look like an easy place to live when you have to live off the land, but it's a wonderful place to drive and hike through.

We saw took a hike called "Notch" and encountered an 80 foot ladder to climb. Pretty easy up, not so easy coming down! 

I climbed up and looked down and snapped a pic of Denise. She thought about it for a sec and followed.

Another group climbing up behind us 

We made it down and took another small hike later in flatter lands.

Lots of wildlife here - bison, pronghorn and bighorn sheep. We took a ride in the evening when they were out near the road.

We had a wonderful time in the Badlands - we are now headed to the Black Hills a couple of hours away in the southwest corner of South Dakota.