Exploring the Great West: Day 1, Part 2, The Badlands National Park: Hiking Saddle Pass and Driving the Badlands Loop Road

This is a continuation of a travel series to The Great West.  To start at the beginning, go HERE!

On day one of our vacation we returned to the Badlands National Park.  We had already visited for a short time in 2019 but we loved it so much we promised ourselves we would return someday and explore more. We still only had one half day to spend in the Badlands, as the first half of the day was spent just getting there.  But since we had been there before, it turned out a half day was all that was needed.  There were only two trails left we wanted to hike:  Notch Trail (which I covered in last week's post) and Saddle Pass Trail.

Saddle Pass Trail is only a .25 mile round trip trail.  I know that sounds so short, and it is, but it is VERY, VERY STEEP and STRENUOUS.  This trail is marked as strenuous on the park trail guide.  It is such a steep and slippery trail I found it almost impossible to climb.  I was constantly slipping on the gravel and I don't think I could have even done it at all if my husband wasn't there for me to hold onto.  But, if you can do this trail, I recommend it, because the views are spectacular!  

There's this cute bridge right by the parking lot that leads to the trail.  Because of the steepness and the slippy gravel, it is not recommended hiking this trail after a rain (does it ever really rain in the Badlands though?)

This short trail climbs up the Badlands Wall to a view over the White River Valley.  

Like most of the Badlands, there isn't much shade so when I found a shady spot, I stopped to rest awhile.

Once you reach the top, you get the stunning views of the White River Valley.  Here you can connect to either the Castle or Medicine Root Loop Trail (Those are 10 miles and 4 miles trails, so we skipped those.  Plus, they just go through the flat prairies of the valley. Nothing too exciting except cactus and rattle snakes) or go back the way you came.

Before we made the decent back down, we spent quite a bit of time up on top just exploring.

Hubby even went rock climbing to capture me in the middle of the photo below.  That is his shadow in the picture.  Isn't that cool?

You can see the parking lot and the steep trail you climbed to get up this high.

It was really fun just wandering around up on the top butte.  However, the descent down was not fun.  I wanted to just get down on my butt and slide down, but hubby wouldn't let me cause he said I'd ruin my clothes.  The only way then I could make it down was if he went ahead of me, and I put my hands on his shoulders, and allowed myself just to slide and crash right into him.  His bulky frame never wavered when I would crash right into him.  You would have thought I would have knocked him down, but he stayed solid.  I couldn't believe they didn't have any type of chain or hand rail to hang on to, but hubby said the rocks were too unstable and a chain or railing would have just pulled right out.

Eventually we made it safely down and I was quite relieved.  Now it was time to just get back in the car and enjoy the Badlands scenic loop road on the way out of the park.

There are not anymore trails after this point, just plenty of parking lots and pull overs to enjoy all these spectacular scenic views.

This would be a great road to take Grandma on, children, or anyone who may enjoy beautiful views but can't hike or doesn't enjoy hiking.  

This stop told the story of a war between the Native Americans and the military in this area.

We were at this part of the park at dusk, so we saw a lot of wildlife.  I highly recommend you drive this road in the late afternoon/early evening, right before the sun sets, because you will not only get to see gorgeous sunsets, but you will see lots of animals out feeding for the night.

My favorite part of this scenic road was Yellow Mounds.  Oh my, I felt I was in a scene from "Lord of the Rings" when I was in this area of the park.  The color seemed so magical I expected to see a hobbit pop out.

"These strangely colored mounds are the result of an ancient sea draining away and the chemicals from decaying plants turning the soil yellow." (source)

Oh, such beauty, every where I looked!  

And just as reached the end of the scenic road, and we were about to exit the park, we saw our very first buffalo of the trip.  We were so excited!  Little did I know that by the time this trip would be over, I would have seen hundreds of buffalo.  

I hope you enjoyed my return visit to the Badlands.  Next week, I will back with another South Dakota adventure at Bear Butte State Park.  It was one of the most thrilling hikes of my life!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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Our Smokey Mountains Vacation - Day Three, Part One: Cades Cove Loop Road

This post is part of a travel series of our vacation in the Smokey Mountains.  To start at the beginning, go HERE!  The rest of the post in chronological order are HERE!

After a very rigorous hike to Rainbow Falls the day before,  our aching bodies were ready for a more relaxing day so my husband and I decided to drive the Cades Cove Loop Road.

When I was planning our trip to the Smokies, the Cades Cove Loop Road constantly came up in my Pinterest feed.  It is one of the most popular scenic roads in the park.  When I looked at other people's pictures, I will be honest, I was not impressed.  I couldn't understand why this road was so popular.  Nevertheless, I had to see it for myself to find out why this place was so well-loved, and once I did, I understood why!  Driving the Cades Cove Loop Road was one of the biggest highlights of my time in the Smokies!  The landscape was so serene and peaceful.  The prairie land looked so beautiful with the scenic mountain back drop.

When preparing for our trip I read a lot of blogs where they talked about how busy this road was and how you could be stuck in traffic for hours, but that was not our experience.  We arrived at the entrance to the loop before the gate was open and waited in line.  We had to ride in a caravan of cars for a little while, but once we pulled over to the first stop all the cars went past us and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  

It takes over an hour just to get from Gatlinburg to Cades Cove, but the road just to get to the gate was part of the adventure.  We drove through tunnels, saw rivers and waterfalls, and a turkey!

Cades Cove is an 11 mile, one way loop.  Allow two to four hours to tour Cades Cove, longer if you plan on doing any of the trails.

There are many, many stops along Cades Cove Road.  There are hiking trails (we didn't take any this day as we were spent from yesterday's hike), churches, scenic views, and many homesteads.  So many people just drive the loop and never stop, but I think we stopped at almost all of them.  We especially loved the churches.  

There is supposed to be a guide that you can buy for $1.00 at the start of the loop, but all the boxes were empty when we were there.  The guide apparently tells you the history of all the stops along the road.

There are three churches in Cades Cove.  We missed the first church but thankfully caught the next two.

This church had a cemetery right outside its windows.  It seems kind of eerie to have a cemetery so close to a church (although I know that was common back in the day) but I can't help to wonder as people sat in church and saw the gravestones right out the church window if perhaps they paid better attention to the sermons 😀

Cades Cove is so rich in history.  If you're a history buff, you will love Cades Cove. Cherokee Indians hunted this land for hundreds of years.  The first European settlers arrived in 1818.

Here are pictures of the insides of two of the churches we stopped at.  They are very plain and simple.

Deer, black bears, coyotes, and turkeys are frequently spotted in Cades Cove.  When we were there we saw deer, a coyote, and lots of turkeys, and one bear so far in the distance I couldn't even make him out.

I could not get over the beauty of the landscape. Pictures do not do it justice.  No wonder I was unimpressed with the photos I saw on Pinterest.

We finally spotted some deer!

About half way through the loop you come to the Cades Cove Visitor Center.  Here are restrooms and a small gift shop.  On the grounds is the Cable Mills Historic Area.

There is a beautiful old farm along a river on the grounds.

Cable Mill

I was so happy that we were able to go inside all these old farmhouses and cabins.  It was so interesting to see how the settlers lived back then.

Every barn we saw in the park had this same shape.  They are very different from Wisconsin barns!

Can you see the turkey walking in the field below?

After our tour of the Cable Mills Historic Area it was back in the car again, but we stopped many more times to tour all the log cabins and farms along the road.

I think I fell in love with every cabin and said to my husband "I'll live here".  I imagined myself sitting on the front porch every morning with a coffee and Bible in hand looking at this gorgeous Mountain View.

This is the backyard of the house whose front porch I was standing on.

Then I arrived at the next cabin and I wanted to live there!  I loved how this one was nestled up against the woods.

Another funky looking barn.  How do those overhangs not collapse?

This cabin looked so similar to the one above that I had to recheck the pictures to make sure it wasn't the same one.  Just like the suburbs today where all the houses seem to look alike, so did the cabins of Cades Cove!  😀.  Each one though had a very unique property, it was so hard to decide which one I would rather live on.  They were all so beautiful in their own way.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Cades Cove.  I feel it really symbolizes the history and the serene beauty of the area.

Oh, I loved Cades Cove.  It was such a beautiful, relaxing morning.  But our day wasn't over yet, we were up so early that we had plenty of time to explore more!  So come back next week for Part Two!

Finally, here are two very short videos to give you a sense of the peaceful beauty of Cades Cove.

Have a Great Day! Amy

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