Canvas in the Sky

Brush strokes of orange, red, purple and made up the clouds while the dark silhouette of the distant hills provided the horizon. The sky itself became vivid red for a moment and reflected itself onto the dark green grassland below. All around, the crickets chirped their approval, the horseflies buzzed with excitement and the mosquitoes … feasted. Dave and I were at the world’s largest 4-D IMAX Theater and boy, were we treated to a show.

I picked up my housemate Dave at the Minneapolis - St. Paul airport halfway through my trek across the northern part of America. We went to the Mall of America in Minneapolis for lunch, which was merely one exit away on the highway. It is the world’s largest mall and it feels like a fantasy world, to wander through the labyrinth of halls, walkways and staircases. Its size and scope is apparent by the full—fledged amusement park in the center of the mall and the food courts. Yes, “courts”. There are multiple.

But we had quite a bit of a drive to get to the world’s largest 4-D IMAX. The Badlands National Park is about a 8 hour drive away without stops in the southwestern corner of South Dakota. Hours and hours of passed of corn growing on rolling hills, prairies, and truck stops finally brought us to the entrance gate. From the visitor’s center, it took about another hour of driving through winding paved and dirt roads before we reached a suitable overlook. We then donned our packs and headed off into the grassland below, climbing over rocks, buttes and ravines.

The Badlands are a unique place to go hiking. Most of the park is grassland so there is no point in building trails. The buttes are also free to climb, being of dry clay formations. Furthermore, buffalos roam freely and climb whatever butte they want. Buttes, by the way, are a geological formation where a higher ground erodes away into a lower ground. Sometimes, the erosion does not happen uniformly and jutted figures form at the points of slow erosion. Over time, the valley itself sinks so much that the buttes become veritable hills.

We walked for an hour south of our parked car. Every time we moved through the knee-deep grass, herds of crickets would jump in front of us as we disturbed their environment. We could not move too fast, as there were bison hoof tracks that were big and deep enough to twist your ankle, should you step in the wrong place. The grass was also littered with bison pies the size of your head. Eventually, we arrived at a spot nestled between two ranges of buttes and set up camp.

As we ate our dinner, the show started. The sky turned dark blue and the clouds became fiery red. Along the periphery, purple clouds shown down to the clay hills turning them reddish purple. Behind us, the orange sun only accentuated the red striations in eroded earth. We sat there in the evening breeze happily snapping photo after photo as the scenes evolved around us. When the sky finally became dark, the sky became littered with stars, satellites, and meteors. All the while, the crickets chirped, the horseflies buzzed, and the mosquitoes…feasted.