Devils Tower

No, I didn’t forget about yesterday! I spent Sunday at Devils Tower NM in Wyoming. I hiked the Red Beds Trail around the tower. This time I planned accordingly and did the trail clockwise. Not that it mattered too much as the trail is more like a necklace, what ever side you go down you must come up the other.

Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, SD Although flash photography is allowed, I don’t like to use flash. This was taken at 24mm, f/7.1, 1/20 sec., ISO 800. Exposure corrected to +0.65. I pushed the clarity and contrast a little, but otherwise a great hand-held shot.

Today I packed up camp early and headed south to Hot Springs, SD to visit the Mammoth Site. A small, paleontology museum that reminded me of the Beringia Museum in Whitehorse, YT. The introduction video was informative about the specific site and its formation. The view of the dig within the building was very well done with a mixture of natural and artificial lighting. The guide used a mixture of proper terminology as well as common terms, something the science geek in me likes (as apposed to using all common terms or dumbed down explanations and generalizations). The fact that all of the bones on the site are real except for one replica is amazing!

From Hot Springs, SD, I traveled to Oglala and on to the White River Visitor’s Center of the southern tract of Badlands National Park. While the drive was scenic, it did not compare to the main unit of the park. I had a nice drive up the scenic loop to Pinnacles Lookout and back to the campground before settling in.

Badlands National Park

Highlights of the day were three Common Nighthawks in flight and a small family of Burrowing Owls. The owlets were very cute and the young still had their downy feathers. The adults would bring in small morsels and they would all rush out from the burrow to greet and dive bomb on their “presents” the victor would quickly scurry off with its prize to gobble down. I sat and watched them for close to 20 minutes. I think I will return tomorrow when the lighting is better.

Burrowing Owlets rushing in to get the catch.

Burrowing Owl

I am really bummed that at the moment the skies are too cloudy to try out night photography, the Milky Way will have to wait for another day. 🙁