We visited a place…a national park…that caused immediate gasps and sighs…where the wind almost blew us away…where sand castles reached to the sky.
Deposition and erosion are the reasons this National Park has come to look this way…It’s a process that began eons ago…and is still going on today.
The structures left in this National Park are eroding…but not very fast…
and anyone lucky enough to see them…gets a glimpse into our planet’s past.
The Lakota understood this land…for growing and hunting and crossing…was sad
they named it Mako Sica…which translated means ‘land bad.”
And anyone who tried to tame her… “These are bad lands.” they’d exclaim…That in a nutshell…is how Badlands National Park originally got her name.
But Deborah and I weren’t there to live off her…we had only planned….
to observe her beauty, to feel her winds…and to tiptoe across her land.
To wonder about a time long ago…to try and get a peek
into how the Lakota could live on land so desolate and bleak.
With every step we took…the landscape seemed to change…
Everywhere we looked…whispers, wows and smiles we’d exchange.
We spent hours in the park…even though the winds were rough…
because when it came to the Badlands…we could not get enough.
It was Mako Sica to the Lakota…and Badlands to all other passersby
but to one couple whose visit was only temporary…
she will always be a land where sandcastles reach the sky.
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