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Badlands National Park
Southwestern South Dakota

Tuesday, August, 24, 2004

Saddle Pass Trail is short and sweet but very steep. This is pretty much the angle of climb all the way to the top.

On the way up I pass by this enormous hoodoo, it's about 15 feet tall. A hoodoo is a formation that looks like a mushroom. The top of the hoodoo consists of a harder, more erosion-resistant surface that protects the lower, softer ground below it. In this case, the upper structure is wormhole sandstone and the lower structure is brule clay.

At the top of the hike I encounter a field full of hoodoos.