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soswimwithit t1_jdhkemg wrote

Dumb story for you all.

I was here in my early twenties with a buddy, we had driven to the Black Elk Wilderness for a week of hiking and decided to make a day trip of it on the way home.

We drove around taking in the scenery and goofing off with each other as degenerate youth do. We decided we wanted to stop by the ranger station to share with them how funny we were.

When we got there, we both put on our sunglasses and walked into the station all serious looking. Saying nothing, we walked around the room eyeing things up and down, picking things up and acting like we were scoping out the place. When we had built up the tension with the ranger at the desk, it was ready for the finale.

We both slowly walked up to the desk, and the ranger looks up at us with a calm confusion about what our deal was. She says something along the lines of the standard, "How may I help you two?".

After a brief pause, I look at her and say... "Now Ma'am, were not from around these parts. But in your role as a ranger as this here park, you must know a great deal about the surrounding area. So my question is... would you consider these Lands to be good?... * dramatically lowers sunglasses* "...or Bad?"

She stares back at me unwavering, then cracked a grin. My friend and I both start laughing. She starts laughing. We exchanged pleasantries and got on with our day.

I hope we were able to break up the monotony of that park rangers day even but for a moment, but it's a fond memory I have from a simpler time in my life.

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Brineguy12 t1_jdhs7c5 wrote

Hey I was here in May 2022! It was super foggy, my family couldn’t see anything haha

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tiffanyblueprincess t1_jdhs7p9 wrote

I love the badlands 🥲 I visit every time I drive through SD on my way to Wyoming from upper Michigan. It feels like a different planet

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LaylaBird65 t1_jdhuinr wrote

I absolutely love this park. The Black Hills as well. South Dakota has a lot of hidden gems. We lived there for a few years and always took trips here.

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toastibot t1_jdhxhup wrote

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skihawk18 t1_jdhyiup wrote

The gateway to the west! Such a stunning start to a beautiful chunk of the US

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Buck_Thorn t1_jdhztvx wrote

Isn't that an amazing place? And you caught it early in the morning, when the lighting is best. I have some similar photos that I took there about 10 years ago, with the moon rising in the sky behind the formations.

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timpdx t1_jdi1t3m wrote

Maybe we crossed paths, I camped a couple nights there in May last year.

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AFOpie t1_jdi7p34 wrote

“I got me an acre of land in South Dakota in the Badlands. I got me an acre of bad land. That shit is mean.” -Mitch Hedberg

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e-wing t1_jdifkep wrote

Replying to tiffanyblueprincess (#2,335,616)

If you’re into that other worldly feel, definitely go check out Craters of the Moon in Idaho. It’s a couple hours drive from the Tetons, and it’s awesome and underrated. Lots of cool geology, trails and you can go inside the underground lava tubes too.

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takingastep t1_jdighbi wrote

This pic is kinda messing with my sense of scale a bit. I'm seeing the grass up close in the foreground, and you'd think it'd be knee/waist high at most. But the apparent distance between the foreground and background seems probably a lot shorter than it likely is, so the mountains look kinda miniature, as if a person's height would come up to the 3rd or 4th noticeable layer from the bottom, instead of maybe the 1st layer at most.

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EmmalouEsq t1_jdimc6d wrote

Last time I was there there were no other people in the park and the sun was just about to set.

I love that place.

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mailboxheaded t1_jdipcfz wrote

I was there when the sun was starting to set. The colors were amazing.

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takingastep t1_jditb4j wrote

Replying to MortimerMcMire315 (#2,339,672)

Google Maps has a "Terrain" layer you can select; it puts height contours on the regular map. Looks like the tops range from ~2800 ft to just over 3000 ft, with the typical nearby flatland surface contours around 2100 ft. So yeah, not that tall, it seems. Interesting.

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boundbylife t1_jdivgwc wrote

This doesn't even look real. It looks like an MMO zone "wall" or something.

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bowieziggyaladdin OP t1_jdivkyr wrote

Replying to takingastep (#2,338,347)

If I remember right the grass was about knee high at most, I wasn’t standing too far from the range when I took it, maybe about 2-3 football fields away.

All about perspective. I come from Illinois so they seemed like mountains to me 😂.

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Photonix2368 t1_jdivl3u wrote

My wife is from SD. We love the Badlands and Black Hills area. Thanks for sharing your pic!

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baddBoyBobby t1_jdiwl9r wrote

One of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life.

​

"All the earth colors of the painter's palette are out there in the many miles of badlands." Georgia O'Keefe

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TBSchemer t1_jdj074e wrote

I had a bad time in those lands.

Standing at the edge of those gorges, it's so easy to slip and fall. Worst vertigo I ever had.

And then the bugs ate me alive. Tiny yellow biters swarmed into my hair. I had an allergic reaction, and had to rush over to a pharmacy for some Benadryl. Sadly, the Wall Drug store was closed at the time.

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AnnoyingCelticsFan t1_jdj6mnn wrote

Replying to Brineguy12 (#2,335,614)

I went there in January 2023 and it was super foggy in the morning. Tried to drive through and legit couldn’t see anything more than 10 feet ahead of me. Luckily it cleared up in the early afternoon and I got to explore the badlands for the rest of the day.

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EightPieceBox t1_jdj7ljg wrote

I passed through here when I was 5. It's my most vivid memory of that drive. I thought it looked exactly like a Road Runner cartoon.

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thecheat420 t1_jdjaz18 wrote

Replying to AFOpie (#2,337,393)

"Like it's land so that mean it's dirt that's horizontal and there was an animal walking across it and since the land was bad it opened up and swallowed it. Hehe. That's fuckin dumb."

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penisprotractor t1_jdjc1px wrote

drove past here august 2021 in a ford focus with no AC. Had to drive in my boxers and pour a gallon of water all over me inside the car until i reached Deadwood. Awesome sights though.

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lindsaybethhh t1_jdjdsns wrote

Being from New England where we have nothing that looks like that, it is totally mind blowing to see landscapes like this in person. So cool.

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natalie2012 t1_jdjg3xz wrote

Thought it looked familiar. They filmed many scenes from Starship Troopers there.

So you’re seeing beautiful Badlands. All I see is Klendathu. 100,000 dead in the first hour.

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Adk318 t1_jdjhkgv wrote

Looks like the filming location for Bone Tomahawk

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NYG_5 t1_jdjhpo0 wrote

WE'VE JUST LANDED HERE ON WHAT CAP TROOPERS ARE CALLING "BIG K", WITH THE 6TH MOBILE INFANTRY DIVISION! IT'S AN UGLY PLANET, A BUG PLANET! A PLANET HOSTILE TO LIFE AS WE....

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bowieziggyaladdin OP t1_jdjhyuy wrote

Replying to 2nd_Sun (#2,341,574)

We road tripped from Chicago area to badlands/black hills. It wasn’t bad. Made some strategic spread out stops (field of dreams, Souix city-stopped at stone state park which was nice, Souix falls, Wall, Rapid City). Farthest we went was Devils Tower in WY. Good week long road trip. It’s not bad broken up in ~4 hour chunks of driving.

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HistoryNerdiest t1_jdji3jz wrote

It's a very striking landscape. The Val Kilmer movie "Thunder Heart" was filmed there and is one of my favorites behind "Tombstone, of course.

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Stalinwolf t1_jdjl7d8 wrote

My wife and I looked at Google Reviews once for this place. Someone gave it a one star for being hot during their visit.

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Pbphphpbphph t1_jdjnk9o wrote

People we're cool as shit in Rapid City but boy o boy does the place shut down in the winter. Depressing as fuck coming from Florida

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ReviveOurWisdom t1_jdjo9qf wrote

I took almost the exact same picture when I went in September! I just posted mine, great minds think alike

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mank_319 t1_jdjqb6y wrote

Don’t forget to treat yourself to a watered-down 5c coffee from Wall Drug.

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xib6ub9x t1_jdjrtm4 wrote

Resemblance of badlands in World of warcraft 🤣

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Feisty-Dog-8505 t1_jdjrx5f wrote

Love visiting here, especially in the spring, so many baby animals!💕

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Compisgood t1_jdjs3jn wrote

Great drive for an afternoon. Also, there are signs warning about snakes...they mean it.

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seemebeawesome t1_jdjsbur wrote

My sister moved to Rapid City. Holy Shite! So many beautiful places in SD

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FrozenInSoDak t1_jdk2ngh wrote

Upvote for one of the few badass things about South Dakota. Starship Troopers!

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khodge1968 t1_jdk4ve1 wrote

My family loves this park. Too many people drive by it. On their way to the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore and Crazyhorse and all of those other places. It’s a little ways. Short of that along the interstate but it is well worth a stop. We used to always drive by it. I’ve lived in this state, my entire life and it only been there once. But my family stopped when my kids were little and it has been a spot to stop every time we’ve gone to the Black Hills. Our best story is my son, loves snakes, and still has a corn snake in his room, but we were walking along a path and looked up at head high and there was a rattlesnake in the rocks. We thought it was cool. Am I hung around and watched it for a while and then we continued along the path and wouldn’t climb. There’s some ladders they have to go uphill, and things like that. And then, when we came back, the rattlesnake was gone. We did have a slight moment of semi panic, wondering where it had gone to. But if you live in an area with rattlesnakes, you understand getting bit by them is usually because somebody is screwing with them. It’s very uncommon to get bit by a rattlesnake and less you were doing something Stupid.

I work in an ICU that is one of the biggest ICUs in the state and we are a very rural state so we get patients from a wide geographical area. My favorite store is this gentleman was trying to kill a rattlesnake and he got bit and ended up in RAC you getting CroFab. Which is the anti-venom. He did well and got out and then about a couple of months later, we have the same gentleman in with a rattlesnake bite again. Apparently he was driving and saw one in the ditch and was so mad about getting bit the previous time he got out and tried to kill it was a hoe. And subsequently got bit again. All he could do a shock a little bit. He knew it was stupid and I doubt he challenged too many rattlesnakes after that.

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Calvin--Hobbes t1_jdkacsg wrote

Replying to resonantrosewraps (#2,340,934)

  • Lack of good restaurants, places to go out, events, etc. I'd have to drive 5 hours to see the nearest pro sports team play.
  • Lack of good public infrastructure. Everything is spread out, so you have to drive to get anywhere. Not terribly many bike trails or bike lanes.
  • The entire state is a pretty insular place. It takes some time for people to not be seen as outsiders, if they ever are. Even in the biggest city everyone knows everyone.
  • If you're east river, flat and boring landscape, but it can be beautiful in it's own way. West river is beautiful.
  • Serious lack of diversity coupled with a lot of casual racism. There is a particular amount of racism directed towards Natives.
  • Culture there is very much conservative, traditional Christian. Get married young, have kids, go to church. The default question there is 'what church do you go to?', not 'do you go to church?'
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JoyBoyy t1_jdkej7p wrote

Thought that was the power rangers base for a second. Lmao

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Select_Recover7567 t1_jdkgyeg wrote

Live about 30 miles from them in southern South Dakota. Love driving through them and looking at the fossil exhibits.

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puzdawg t1_jdkrun1 wrote

Biking the Badlands is a much different experience than driving your car.

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xladyfinger t1_jdkscs5 wrote

Man those are some bad lands.... mitch hedberg.

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[deleted] t1_jdmw583 wrote

Replying to LaylaBird65 (#2,335,885)

We went there a long time ago and some woman crawled out onto one of the hoodoos (not sure what they're called in SD), and then froze. It was really windy too. She wanted me to come out and get her. Uh, no. I went to the ranger station and they sent the fire department up there to get her off of it. I'm scared walking upstairs at my house lady, no way I'm crawling out on a narrow, 100+ foot high jut.

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