Wall, South Dakota Monday, Aug 17 2009
Northwestern Road Trip 9:57 am

WALL, SD – “I was totally unprepared for that revelation called the Dakota Bad Lands,” once commented Frank Lloyd Wright. “What I saw gave me an indescribable sense of mysterious elsewhere.” That pithy commentary is decidedly apt, as these vast expanses prove creepy and fascinating; stunning and endearing; and, above all else, wholly mysterious. Indeed, there is no literary prepation for Badlands National Park – the experience itself is a forceful reminder of the power images hold above words.
Those images (one pictured above) are haunting. Quite simply, this is not the prototypical landscape to which we have become accustomed – nature has offered a genuinely bizarre deviation from the norm in these regions. The sites presented here are not mountains, nor are they sand dunes, nor are they rock faces – they are, rather, entirely unique. Where more mundane scenery like simple grass forces its way into the landscape, the resulting contrast is entirely surreal (pictured below).
Juxtaposed to the mountanious likes of Banff, Jasper and Glacier National Parks, or even the underwhelming scenery of Yellowstone National Park, the Badlands are a fully different experience. These acres share little in common with their similarly-protected brethren; the colors here are almost entirely muted, the climate is not outwardly welcoming, and the landscape is downright intimidating. While most of those expanses managed by the Department of the Interior enjoy a palpably romantic quality, these lands are somehow the oxymoronic incarnation of a blissful horror.
Nearby towns like this community seemingly live off the tourism the Badlands attract. Here, the Wall Drug Store is something of an institution, consuming an entire city block with retail outfits that range from souveneir clothing to fresh donuts. There is a quaint Western feel to the town, though with tourism being the primary trade, it is often difficult to ascertain just which qualities are genuine and which are manufactured.
Such a dillema, however, is entirely absent in the Badlands themselves. This experiece must be genuine – it is far too surreal to be manufacted. And, as Frank Lloyd Wright so eloquently noted, the resulting sense of “indescribable mysterious elsewhere” is supreme.
















