Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Trip Home - The Badlands Cedar Pass

I noticed on the park map a "pass" coming up and could not imagine there could be an actual pass in this area devoid of "real" mountains. But sure enough, I soon was winding down off Cedar Pass and headed for yet another fabulous scenic turnout. 


This one had quite a long trail that wound up to a viewing platform before winding back down to the parking lot. The views all along the way were spectacular!







Above are some views from the very top of the trail.




On the way down, the trail wound into a wooded area. It was late afternoon, shady down in those trees and I couldn't get the snake warning signs out of my head. But none were seen, just these interesting rocks once I got out in the open again.




And twisty tree trunks and junipers loaded with berries. Don't forget that larger versions of the pics are available by clicking on them, then clicking again once you get to the slideshow.

I was almost to the visitor center, having gone less than 5 miles into the park, at least 20 more to go. But surely, I'd be able to just breeze through those additional miles because it really was getting late and I had several more hours of interstate driving before reaching my destination for the night. I did skip the visitor center, but many more scenic turnouts enticed me off the road...can you stand more pictures?

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