Badlands Residency Day 19

Spent the day with Ed (park paleontologist) and Gary (teacher from Calhoun, summer park ranger).  Ed has wanted me to see an area of badlands in Nebraska since my first trip out here two years ago.  The idea being that it would give me a better understanding of the geology within Badlands NP.  Today, we finally managed it.  The badlands formations stretch from North Dakota down into Nebraska, so we were looking at the southern areas near Crawford.  Beautiful stuff, with many areas that look so much like Palmer Creek I could almost forget where I was.  We spent time hiking through Toadstool Geologic Park, which has great formations, fossils, and fossilized trackways with prints from birds, bugs, hippos, rhinos, entelodonts, and more.  Very neat place.

When we arrived home in the park, I began cooking for a group dinner, hosting a half dozen friends for a meal with music and conversation.  After eating we played a game of cards and I ended the night with a walk behind the quad.  Yet another very good day here.

At Fort Robinson, the site where Crazy Horse
received a fatal bayonet wound.

Tractor found near a gas station in Crawford.

I have a thing for trains.  Call it an inherited love:
my grandfather was a civil engineer for the Rock
Island Line.  Saw this coming, had to stop.

Gary and Ed entering Toadstool Geologic Park.

Gary next to toadstools for scale.

Evidence of a rhino being startled and jumping;
here is a footprint from when he landed, complete
with preserved mud splashes.

I really love the look of the chadron mud.

Reconstructed sod house just outside Toadstool Park.