Terry Badlands Wilderness Study Area

Bob and I had a good trip from Watford City, ND to Miles City, MT, except for a rock kicked up by a passing truck which made a large ding in our motorhome windshield. Bob called a local auto glass shop and they came right out the next morning to patch it, and the 3 or 4 other little ones we had, too.

I don't know about you, but I never realized that there are many areas called badlands. We saw them in North and South Dakota, but there are badlands in Montana, too. On Thursday morning Bob and I drove out to visit some more, not too far from our campground.

The Terry Badlands includes 44,000 acres of public lands designated as a Wilderness Study Area and managed by the Bureau of Land Management. There are two roads into the TB, one of which requires a high clearance vehicle. We took the other road which was rough but gave our Honda CR-V no problems.

Scenic View Road runs along the northern edge of the wilderness study area for 5.1 miles, ending at an overlook area. We saw not a single car or human all along this road. But we did see cows grazing, which interested Auggie.

What a nice place to graze for these cattle--I wonder if they appreciate the views! I brought my new camera (a Canon EOS Rebel T5i) that arrived by mail yesterday, and I was excited to try it out. All I can say is, I have a lot to learn! But I was pleased with the images I got and look forward to getting better with it. I told Bob that the camera accessory I'd like next is a Jeep so we can access more hard-to-visit places to photograph, but I'm not going to hold my breath!

We saw some neat rock formations.

Not all of this area is treeless.

At the end of the road was a lookout area with breathtaking views.

We came across a group of trinkets, brought as offerings perhaps. We left them undisturbed.

Driving back out I took this shot of the hills to the north. What a beautiful place this is, and it was not even on our radar before we got here.

I was pleased to see that the smoke that the campground host warned us about has dissipated and the air is nice and clean. We hear that Glacier National Park has suffered much from the wildfires this year. Such a sad thing. Our prayers go out to those affected by the fires, floodings, and hurricanes. This has been a tough year for natural disasters and I fear that with unchecked climate change, these will become the norm.