Badlands Trip - Day 3

This time we got up early and headed out into the hills.  Not nearly so much beer the night before, so everything went well.  We headed back out to the same area, but this time moved a little further down the valley, to the next gas well site.  It was partly cloudy and fairly calm, and we hoped that the wind would not pick up the way it had yesterday.  After parking the truck I got up and wandered around the prairie on the edge of the grass lands.  I soon found a tipi ring.  As I wandered around further, I found four or five more.  These are the rings of stones that the nomadic plains Indians had used to hold down the edges of their tents [tipis].  These temporary campsites often seemed to have been set up right on the rim of the valleys, as was the case here.  The theory is that the wind coming up out of the valley kept the bugs down, and also helped when they were preserving meat by drying.  I found this site fascinating and explored for quite a while up on top, while Frank headed off on foot down into the badlands.  I brought out my camera and took a number of photographs, both film and digital, of the tipi rings.  Eventually I came across 10 of them, all within a couple hundred yards of where I had parked the truck.  Later in the day Frank came across three more, in a perfect line, about a quarter mile to the south.

It was after noon before I had finished exploring all the tipi rings and photographing them.  I spent quite a bit of time at this, and also kept my eyes peeled for arrow heads.  I didn't find any arrow heads, but I did find four deer sheds, to go with the one that I had found our first day out.  By this time the clouds had rolled in and the light had gone kind of flat.  The wind also really picked up, to much the same level that it had been the day before.  Having learned the hard way the day before, I was particularly careful when setting up my tripod.  I met up with Frank down in the badlands and we spent the afternoon wandering around and exploring.  I found a cool little fish vertebra, and a nice chunk of amber.  But other than that I mostly just enjoyed the scenery and took a few photographs.  As the day came to a close we headed back up to the truck, and drove back to the campsite.  Here are a few photographs taken that afternoon...