Bad Lands, part two

Wednesday, (8/1)      We woke up with the sun this morning (at around 5:30am) and were in the truck by 6:30am to undertake a 2 hour hike, first up the Saddle Pass Trail (which wind through the rocks up and over "the wall" to a sort of circle of the Medicine Root and Castle Trails.
View from the top of Saddle Pass...

Climbing up and between the rocks is not for the faint of heart---we used our hiking sticks, which helped a lot.   Then a long, flat walk on the savannah--dry grass, clumps of cactus and lots of birds, including a loud grouse who was prob just as startled as we were.  No rattlesnakes today.  Climbing back down the Pass felt a lot more slippery than going up...the final descent was a winding, smooth clay passage covered with sand/fine gravel.  At times, sliding down on my butt seemed a better idea than staying on foot, but I managed just fine (pretty proud of my old self).  We came back to the RV and got 'er all buttoned up and ready to roll---on to Angostura Reservoir (Shade!  Water!!!) via Rapid City for a stop at its very own Food Co-op.  Odometer: 85,154 = 2,419 miles traveled so far.

The drive out of the Badlands was gorgeous...I kept feeling as though I was looking at the floor of an ocean with no water.   Then the landscape was just flat and endless and dry looking until we got close to Rapid City.  In and out of rainstorms, the temp went down from the high 90s to the low 80s, which felt almost cool by comparison.  Then all of a sudden we came over a final rise and saw a veritable oasis....Angostura Reservoir is edged on the far opposite side by the beginnings of the Black Hills---tawny mounds dotted with black trees (which are green up close, but look so dark from the distance that they're almost black).  Very, very pretty.   Beautiful cloud formations too.  Of course Nils went for an immediate swim.   It's a relief to be surrounded by trees and close to water after our hot, arid time in the Badlands.  We'll be here until Friday morning, when we travel to Sylvan Lake.