The Badlands

The Badlands. . , The stillness of the land is a disguise. Hard infrequent rain attack the loosely cemented clays and sandstones, gouging new gullies and carrying off as much as two to four inches of surface a year from steep, unprotected slopes., At night the buttes and outcroppings take on eerie shapes. A dawning sun pours back the shifting colors., In the future this jagged land will be smooth and rounded. The river, cutting through soft rock – the burning lignite – the sudden downpours – become part of one vast shaping motion., < Left Sidebar: > , Burning Hills , Sparked by lightning or grass fires, lignite coal ruins smolder underground. The fierce heat bakes the surrounding rock into red clinkers, such as you see on the nearby hilltops., < Right Sidebar: > , Slumping , Huge house-sized masses of earth shear from bluffs and creep downhill. Unlike landslides, these slumpblocks remain intact, and move so slowly that most shear scars weather away before the blocks finally come to rest. This can be seen at the foot of this viewpoint and throughout the park. Try to match the slumpblocks’ tilted strata with the horizontal bands on high exposed hillsides.