Driving through America�s National Parks Badlands

After a quick jaunt at Mount Rushmore National Memorial featuring the faces of four American presidents, we headed for the Badlands National Park in South Dakota around noon of August 18.

As we neared the Badlands, 85 miles east of Mount Rushmore, the topography of the region changed abruptly from rolling grassland to an unsightly parcel of gnarled land full of grotesque rocky configurations. Never have we seen a landscape so mangled and mutilated, so utterly removed from the rest on Earth. Grey, overcast sky added an eerie dimension to the already desolate environment of the Badlands.

Sometimes referred to as “The Land God Forgot,” most of the areas in the Badlands are so forbidding that George Custer, an officer of the U.S. Army, described them as “hell with the fires burned out.” President Theodore Roosevelt described the Badlands as “so fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to seem hardly properly belong to this earth.” It is, therefore, not surprising that the Lakota Indians, original settlers of the area, named it mako sica, meaning “land bad.” As for me, surreal is the only way I can describe this geologic anomaly.

Badlands terrain is a spectacle of bizarre pinnacles, serrated ridges and domed hills, imposing toothed spires in crayon-box colors ranging from shell pink to mustard yellow and an array of sharply eroded twisting canyons dimpled with colorfully variegated buttes. These features, though appalling and scary, offer a stark and savage beauty to the region.

The ridges and canyons did not exist until 500,000 years ago, when water from the Cheyenne River, the main player on this stage, began to cut through the layers of rocks, carving unearthly shapes into what had been a flat flood plain. The carving is still going on at the rate of about one inch per year. Evidence suggests that they will be completely eroded in another 500,000 years, giving Badlands a life span of just one million years – not a long period of time from a geologic standpoint.

There are many overlooks along the 30–mile drive that cuts through the belly of the park. From the overlooks we saw one mind-blowing rock formation after another. We were mesmerized not as much by the startling panorama that is the Badlands, but by the formations with striations of multi-colored hues that seemed to vie for our attention.

The colored layers in the rocks are fossilized soils called paleosols while a whitish layer near the top of many of the formations is the result of ash ejected from distant volcanoes long ago. The lustre of the colors and thickness of the layers represent different periods of geological history.

One of the most monumental geologic formations of this inhospitable terrain is The Wall, a long scarp of topographic relief that continues to recede in the face of erosion. Sculpted into fantastic pinnacles and tortuous gullies by the relentless forces of nature – rain, river and wind, Wall is so eroded it looks like a giant’s jaws filled with broken teeth.
Beneath the Badlands lies one of the richest Oligocene fossil beds of mammals which flourished in the area 25 to 35 million years ago. Fossilized remains of three-toed horses, saber-toothed cats, giant pigs, mountain goats and other species have been found here. The oldest rock layers contain marine fossils, roughly 70 million years old, from when this area was covered by a giant sea.

As we looked back on our way to Wall, a funky little town outside the park’s perimeter, our initial reaction of Badlands as a mangled and mutilated piece of land changed to that of a vast unforgiving wasteland ruthlessly ravaged by wind and water. Perhaps this is how our planet looked like millions of years before life appeared.

Badlands was the last of the seven national parks we wanted to visit during our memorable two-week long odyssey. We had a great time, drove 3410 miles and received from nature far more than we sought. We saw some of the most beautiful natural and geological wonders of America. These parks are amphitheatres where nature plays music for those who want to listen. They are also an archive where Earth’s ever-changing landscape has been faithfully recorded.

Saint Augustine famously wrote, “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” During this trip, we read seven more pages of the book filled with stories of the evolution of amazing landscapes over millions and millions of years.

The writer is Professor of Physics at Fordham University, New York.

Photos: Mahjabeen Haider

Driving through America�s National Parks Badlands

After a quick jaunt at Mount Rushmore National Memorial featuring the faces of four American presidents, we headed for the Badlands National Park in South Dakota around noon of August 18. As we neared the Badlands, 85 miles east of Mount Rushmore, the topography of the region changed abruptly from rolling grassland to an unsightly parcel of gnarled land full of grotesque rocky configurations. Never have we seen a landscape so mangled and mutilated, so utterly removed from the rest on Earth. Grey, overcast sky added an eerie dimension to the already desolate environment of the Badlands. Sometimes referred to as The Land God Forgot, most of the areas in the Badlands are so forbidding that George Custer, an officer of the U.S. Army, described them as hell with the fires burned out. President Theodore Roosevelt described the Badlands as so fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to seem hardly properly belong to this earth. It is, therefore, not surprising that the Lakota Indians, original settlers of the area, named it mako sica, meaning land bad. As for me, surreal is the only way I can describe this geologic anomaly. Badlands terrain is a spectacle of bizarre pinnacles, serrated ridges and domed hills, imposing toothed spires in crayon-box colors ranging from shell pink to mustard yellow and an array of sharply eroded twisting canyons dimpled with colorfully variegated buttes. These features, though appalling and scary, offer a stark and savage beauty to the region. The ridges and canyons did not exist until 500,000 years ago, when water from the Cheyenne River, the main player on this stage, began to cut through the layers of rocks, carving unearthly shapes into what had been a flat flood plain. The carving is still going on at the rate of about one inch per year. Evidence suggests that they will be completely eroded in another 500,000 years, giving Badlands a life span of just one million years not a long period of time from a geologic standpoint. There are many overlooks along the 30mile drive that cuts through the belly of the park. From the overlooks we saw one mind-blowing rock formation after another. We were mesmerized not as much by the startling panorama that is the Badlands, but by the formations with striations of multi-colored hues that seemed to vie for our attention. The colored layers in the rocks are fossilized soils called paleosols while a whitish layer near the top of many of the formations is the result of ash ejected from distant volcanoes long ago. The lustre of the colors and thickness of the layers represent different periods of geological history. One of the most monumental geologic formations of this inhospitable terrain is The Wall, a long scarp of topographic relief that continues to recede in the face of erosion. Sculpted into fantastic pinnacles and tortuous gullies by the relentless forces of nature rain, river and wind, Wall is so eroded it looks like a giants jaws filled with broken teeth. Beneath the Badlands lies one of the richest Oligocene fossil beds of mammals which flourished in the area 25 to 35 million years ago. Fossilized remains of three-toed horses, saber-toothed cats, giant pigs, mountain goats and other species have been found here. The oldest rock layers contain marine fossils, roughly 70 million years old, from when this area was covered by a giant sea. As we looked back on our way to Wall, a funky little town outside the parks perimeter, our initial reaction of Badlands as a mangled and mutilated piece of land changed to that of a vast unforgiving wasteland ruthlessly ravaged by wind and water. Perhaps this is how our planet looked like millions of years before life appeared. Badlands was the last of the seven national parks we wanted to visit during our memorable two-week long odyssey. We had a great time, drove 3410 miles and received from nature far more than we sought. We saw some of the most beautiful natural and geological wonders of America. These parks are amphitheatres where nature plays music for those who want to listen. They are also an archive where Earths ever-changing landscape has been faithfully recorded. Saint Augustine famously wrote, The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. During this trip, we read seven more pages of the book filled with stories of the evolution of amazing landscapes over millions and millions of years. The writer is Professor of Physics at Fordham University, New York. Photos: Mahjabeen Haider