Storm rolled out, blue skies rolled in

Hard to believe after the night we had but we woke up to a beautiful morning in the Badlands. 

Well, some of us woke up!

The sweet clover and rocks were just as crazy leaving the park as entering.

Luckily, Q reminded us to get our picture before we left the park.

After waking up @ 4 am to get a run in before a day in the car I found that there was quite a bit of cleanup to do from the big hail storm of the previous night.  We spent over an hour raking what was left of our trees, picking up pieces of my decimated pergola, and bemoaning the loss of my garden.  We got it cleaned up enough to leave and put it all behind us for a week vacay.  Amazingly, we were only about an hour behind our scheduled departure time.  Our trip included a stop in Alliance, Nebraska for Carhenge.

 We planned to stop in the Badlands (South Dakota) for a night of camping.  The contrast of the Sweet Clover (invasive legume) and the geological formations was quite striking.

Campsite 41 had nice views of the buttes and spires.  There is no shade in the campground so it could get quite hot during the summer months.  There was a covered picnic table shelter.

After a so-so lunch at the lodge located inside the park we headed out on the loop drive to explore.

We hiked up to Saddle Pass (1/4 mile).  During the homesteading days the horses came down this way but not the wagons.  If we'd had the time it would have been nice to do the whole trail.

We stopped at most of the observation points for great views of the rocks, sky (getting stormy), and clover.

Q spotted these Big Horn Sheep:

We turned around at the Hay Butte Overlook and took the shortcut back to Interior for dinner at the Wagon Wheel (pizza, hamburgers, and cheese balls).  Just so-so food but we didn't have to cook in the rain so that was all right.  By the time we made it back to camp it was storming.  We stayed in the truck for awhile until the storm blew over.

It was really moving the tent.  Good thing we weren't in there!

I was the only one who slept in there that night.  The kids and C stayed in the back of the truck.