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Badlands in the Winter


First weekend in February we decided to head up to South Dakota's Badlands for some snowy shots of the park.  It was a good time to go, no new snow in the forecast and not below zero degrees, 50 degrees in the forecast.  We took an alternate route on some of the lesser know state highways reaching the Badlands from the Nebraska side.  As we were doing our wildlife siting game,  we spotted a bald eagle on a fence post on the side of HWY 85 in Wyoming,  a few deer and a coyote running across the road. It is like the Antelope know where the Wyoming boarder is, we always see more Antelope in Wyoming than anywhere else. Only 3 sitings, compared to the 44 sitings in May last year.

We had decent light to start but it quickly became partly cloudy with the sun peaking out here and there.   There was some old snow melting and creating rivets in the formations.  We were able to get some different shots on this trip.

Camera: Nikon D500



Sunset photos could be promising we thought, so we picked out a spot we would come back to in around three hours. We ventured out on a side dirt road for more exploration while waiting for the sun to get lower in the sky.  We happened upon a herd of Big Horn Sheep.  So cool!  They were grazing in a valley, away from the wind and completely oblivious to the photographers.  They didn't even flinch when the auto focus beeper was going off as we moved in for the shots.







It was getting colder and the wind speed increased significantly. We went to the spot we picked out earlier, set up the tripods and waited as the wind chilled our fingers. Snapped a few shots and as the sun slid behind the horizon it got crazy cold.  That's enough - back to to Rapid City for some Mexican food!




On Sunday,  a seriously windy 20 degree morning we headed home. As soon as we got on the road the freezing rain started - the rain froze as soon as it hit the windshield.  The defroster in the Jeep was on full blast and finally created small opening - the thing with the defroster is that is does not warm the interior of the Jeep.  It was a good while before we got warm.  Out of the ice storm and into 60 mile and hour winds in Wyoming, we made it home.  I don't know what it is lately with us and the crazy weather on our photo trips?  The last time were were in the Badlands were in that wicked thunder storm and that freak hail storm on the Toadstool trip in Nebraska.

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Location: Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA

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