Monday Memories: South Dakota Part III

Real Live Cows & Cowboys

Real live cowboys were making sure the herd stayed together and got where they were going. The cows weren't afraid of the truck. They swarmed around it and some were even sniffing it. I think some may have even licked it. The cowboys hurried the cows as fast as they could be hurried, but cows more or less mosey, so I was able to snap some pictures of them as it was a very surreal experience for us.

In Pierre we basically stopped for lunch, hit a Wal-Mart for more Chiclets to chew (we went through about 10 packages of gum a day) and took in some of the historical features of the town.

Our next destination would be The Badlands

I'm Petrified

Curious was the dual timelines in the backyard where a collection of petrified wood could be observed. One time line was Creationist, the other Evolutionist. I'm not sure what purpose having both served as the money for admission was taken regardless of your beliefs.

The Land Before Time

What I thought was so amazing were the richness of colors exposed by the erosion. There were grays, but there were reds, pinks, and then we found the intense yellow and reds in a special area noted for being incredibly yellow.

I called them the Mustard Hills though at the park they had given them a different name. The vivid colorings of the soils came about through different ways, all explained at the sites. Each layer of color represented a period of history. It was mind boggling to think that what we were looking at essentially dirt that was laid down millions of years ago. The terrain long ago was vastly different in appearance. It was difficult for me to imagine this dry land being an ancient sea bed, or to think of large dinosaurs roaming around.

We did manage to see some wildlife while we drove through the park. We saw some sheep or mountain goats. We also got out of the truck frequently to stand on impressive outcroppings to capture incredible photographs. Pooky reported that the height was unsettling as seen in the picture to the right. Indeed our journey was a series of ups-and-downs through the various formations. I wondered how long it would be before the roads through the park would have to be changed as they were a part of the eroding and ever-changing landscape.

Making a Memory

The entire experience was like nothing I had witnessed before. I am always astounded, awed, and inspired by the powers of Nature and what She can do. From my human perspective, it seemed like an awfully long time, but then I considered it from Nature's perspective and realize that the erosion process is happening at a rather fast rate.

It is hard for me to imagine having a consciousness with a continuity of millions and billions of years. Granted that I believe my soul to be eternal, yet I have only awareness of this incarnation with snippets of memories from past lives, but that hardly gives me a sense of a prolonged period of time. I wonder how much of a brain cloud I'd suffer from if I could remember a million years. As it is, I get confused remembering what I did a couple of years ago.

We ended the day by coming to rest in the town of Wall, South Dakota. Our adventure in Wall Drug will be chronicalled in next week's Monday Memory.

Links to other Monday Memories