WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS
So we joined the other tourists and drove along the loop road and
stopped at most of the scenic overlooks and worked our way across the park
to the proper campground near the visitors’ center. Picked out a site with a
tree (rare commodity in the Badlands) and set up our tents. It was still midafternoon so we decided to go on three trails and get an early start the next
day. We were half-ways through the first nature trail when we could see this
wall of black clouds coming our way from the west. So we rushed around the
trail and did fully take in all that we found in this oasis of greenery on what is
called a cliff shelf. Back to the tent to have a hasty supper. Gail claims that we
did not have a single sit down proper supper the whole time due to the rain
situation.
A park attendant came by and said that the approaching storm would be
severe and just the previous night a lot of tents were blown over in a similar
storm. He advised us what to do in the event that our tent should go down.
We decided to take down the kids’ tent and we would all sleep together in the
big one. About 8PM the first rain drops came so we got into the tent and sat
there listening to the wind pick up. I told everyone to get their rain jackets on
and as I spoke the corner pole came apart. So we shot the kids out to the car
and Gail collapsed the other poles. I dragged out the cooler and we threw that
and other heavy objects onto the tent to keep it from flapping about. By the
time we got to the car we were drenched. We sat in the car for the next half
an hour as the rain roared past the car horizontally sometimes in such
quantity that it appeared we were in a boat shooting the rapids, An added
effect to that illusion was the car being lifted up by the wind and being
dropped down again, Just to make things interesting there was lightening
striking all around us, Just like that it was over and everywhere you looked
was water, Needless to say every tent in the place was down, Most were now
floating in the middle of lakes, Our tent was in a dry spot so when we
salvaged the belongings from within the tent half were dry. We were the lucky
ones. Many poles had been bent or worse sailed off in the storm never to be
found. We had saved ours. About 80 people went up to the visitors’ center to
spend the night, but we had a third tent which we set up. I could see more
black clouds on the horizon but the attendant assured us that any rain would
be minor. So David slept in the car and the rest of us went into the tent, Sure
enough about midnight I was awoken by lightening and thunder. The
lightening was so intense that it was as if it were daylight. The tent held up
fine as it presented a lower profile than our big one, but the front flaps had ties
and not zippers so a certain amount of rain was getting through. So Gail and I
knelt there for the next twenty minutes or so holding the door closed. Yes,
both David and Renee slept through the whole thing. I didn’t think that this
storm was as bad as the first one but as we found out later it had knocked out
some electric poles and blown over a camper. We still had enough dry
bedding to last the night but we could see a third storm, complete with
lightening, on the horizon so we let someone talk us into joining the others at
the center and went there about 2.3OAm to sleep on the floor. Sure enough
the third one raged on by later on. We were told that on an average summer
there is usually one storm like those three. One per summer. So of course we
get three in the same night, Gail and I had been through a hurricane in Fiji
which caused innumerable damage and it was nothing compared to these
storms.
AFTER THE CORN PALACE YOU MAY AS WELL GO HOME
The morning after the storms we were able to dry everything out within a couple
hours time under the blazing sun. We decided to set our plans back a day and make
the three hikes which were rained out. So we went back to the cliff shelf and did it
again, but very few birds to be seen. Next was the Fossil Exhibit trail which was a
great concept but poorly executed and pretty boring with just a few skulls sitting
along a path or the odd piece of bone with an explanation. The third trail made up for
it though. We actually got in amongst the hills/rocks and climbed up from the base in
the valley through a maze of deep gullies and narrow canyons to the top where we
came out upon the prairie.
All good things must come to an end and so we left the Badlands and headed
on home. Still it was a long way so we stopped at Mitchell and went on a tour of the
World’s Only Corn Palace. Each year new pictures/motifs are put onto the exterior
panels. Corn cobs are soaked and sawed in half and then applied according to
design (similar to paint-by-numbers).