After a little more driving I arrive at the most colorful section of the park. Hues of red, orange, and yellow are everywhere. Visitors can climb on any and all formations, it's a regular free-for-all. A number of folks are crawling over the formations and I wait for them to clear out before I take my pictures.
The second scene is fairly yellow but the picture doesn't show it very well. The yellow is a result of decayed marine life. Apparently the red horizontal bands I mentioned earlier are from both land plants and animals.
From high prairie to the Badlands to low prairie, the Badlands effectively bisect this prairie topography.
Believe it or not, when Congress designated the Badlands as a National Park there was some discussion about changing its name. They felt no one would visit the area if it was named Badlands. Some genius thought the name "Wonderland" was more appropriate. Fortunately, clearer heads prevailed and the name wasn't changed. What a stupid name Wonderland would have been.
Off in the distance I spy the tallest formation of the day. Upon closer inspection it proves to be quite interesting.
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