Sunday started out just like the day before. We got up just after sunrise and had breakfast, then packed up our gear for the day. This time we were heading even further from the campsite to the Krause Ranch. This was an area that we had explored several times in the past, but it was time for another look. The sky was clear and it was quite warm in the morning when we set out. Like the day before, I spent the first couple of hours looking for fossils and generally exploring the area. There were quite a few bone fragments right below the area where we parked the truck including a partly exposed vertebra.
After a couple of hours I once again took my big camera out to make some photographs. By this time some clouds rolled in and the wind really picked up. Kind of made me wish that I had taken photographs first and then spent the latter part of the day looking for fossils. But I made the best of it and spent all afternoon making photographs. This time around I think I set up the big camera nine times. At one point I was perched up on a ridge with a vertical drop of about 75 feet immediately to my right. In the stiff breeze that was blowing I had to be really careful not to get pushed over the edge or have any of my gear blow away. After that I stayed in more sheltered areas to attempt my photographs but the blowing sand and grit were a bit of a challenge.
As I wandered about with the my camera, I made a couple of neat finds. One was the rattle from a rattlesnake. The other was an old weathered horn sheath... probably from a cow, but possibly from the days of the plains bison that once roamed the area.
As the day wore down I made my last few photographs of some details. This included small stumps, dead plants, and texture studies of the badlands formations. I hope that at least one of these will yield an exhibition quality print that perhaps can be included in the Procession West project.
As I packed up my gear for the last time of the day, I looked across the coulee and realized that I had never strayed more than about 200 yards, as the crow flies, from where we had parked the truck. Of course I walked a lot further than that with all my meandering around and all the ups and downs over the rough terrain. With my gear on my back I looked down into the steep coulee that I had struggled to climb up out of earlier in the day. I decided to stay on gentler slopes and climbed a little further back up towards the prairie, hoping that this would result in an easier descent down into the coulee, and back up the other side to the truck. I was mistaken as once I got further up the coulee, the inclines became even steeper. I finally decided to try a soft slope of loose shale with a lot of small plant hummocks. This looked like it might be a safer and easier descent for me, my backpack, and heavy tripod. At first it went pretty well, but once I got about two-thirds of the way down this slope, I ran out of hummocks. I tried digging my heels into the soft shale hoping to gain adequate footing to make it the last 25 feet down to the coulee bottom. Soon I was sliding on my backside, trying to protect my camera pack and my tripod. I crashed to a stop at the bottom, dusted myself off, and realized that I had survived this wild ride no worse for wear.
Eventually I met up with Jim back at the truck and we made the long drive back to camp. As we were driving out of the badlands we checked the truck thermometer and it read 18 degrees. It hadn't felt that warm with the wind blowing all day, but we were both pretty worn out and tired from the day's activities. Once again it was nearly dark by the time we got back to the trailer. And, once again we made an evening meal of steak and potatoes. We sat around the fire for a while and it was a very warm pleasant evening for mid-October. The wind died down and we enjoyed the evening before turning in at a relatively early hour.
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