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Trip over - page 4
Undoubtedly, countless billions of pictures have been taken of Mt. Rushmore. But of the 20 or 30 that I took, I like these two looking through the trees that isolate Washington and Lincoln.
After Rushmore, I head into Rapid City, where I stay at the Motel 6. One thing about Motel 6 … you know what you are going to get. You don’t get much … but at least you know what you’re not going to get. There are not too many surprises.
Day 7 – Rapid City SD to Interior SD I try to time the day so as to get to the Badlands in the late afternoon to catch the best lighting. So I hang out at the Rapid City Motel 6 all morning doing laundry and reorganizing my car. I notice there are a couple of really grungy looking guys loitering around the motel. One of them looked like he had woken up under the pool table at the local bar. Then I realize --- that this is the Motel 6 maintenance crew.
Halfway to Badlands, there is a little place called Scenic. This “Longhorn Saloon” with all the skulls on the top was a definite eye catcher.
I enter Badlands National Park about 2 hours before sunset. Perfect timing … since this is a relatively small park. I want to get all the late day sunlight, and then the sunset.
The Badlands reminded me a little of Bryce Canyon in Utah. There are very visible layers of different colored strata spread about it.
There are a lot of sharp and sculpted ridges. The Badlands have a very parched appearance to them.
Here is a grassy area, glowing golden in the late day sun. Actually, Badlands National Park is within the larger Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.
Some spots were rather colorful. Badlands was maybe the most scenic locale on the entire trip.
The atmospherics were perfect for a long and colorful sunset. I was able to get colorful sky shots at several locations. With sunsets, its all about the clouds. That’s what retains color in the sky.
Sunset shots are tricky, so for each scene I might take maybe 8 or 10 shots at slightly different exposures and with split neutral density filters. That raises the odds that at least one of them will be good. It also burns a lot of film though. If you have a spot meter on your camera, you can quickly gauge sometimes that the sky is 3 or 4 times (“stops” in camera lingo) brighter than the terrain. So it is critical to use split neutral density filters to expose the sky properly, and to also bring detail out in the dark foreground. On some of these shots, I would even go so far as to hold both of my SND filters (2 stop and a 1 stop) together in front of the lens. This desperate measure is known as “stacking”
Here is my car under a twilight sky.
I stayed at the Badlands Budget Host Motel in the tiny town of Interior, which is right at the entrance to the park. There is not a lot going on here. It would be advisable to bring your own food when you stay out here.
Day 8 – Interior SD to Sioux Fall SD I got out to the Badlands before sunrise. The predawn light is very mellow, with especially warm hues. These pictures were actually taken just moments after sunrise, but clouds temporarily blocked the direct sun.
A few minutes later, the direct sun was shining down on the land. I really like these sunrise outings, they help build a better understanding of the quality and nature of light.
With the Badlands, as with other red rock type areas, they do not seem to have a permanent color. Their color is as fleeting as the value of the sunlight, or lack of it, that is striking it at any moment. The color of a specific site can range from a dull grey to a rich red, and everything in between. It all depends on the character of the light reflecting off it at the time.
Here are a couple of scenes of Badlands deer, out in their favorite time of the day - the early morning.
This was an hour or so after sunrise, with the sunlight still peeking in and out of the clouds. I like the way that pyramid shaped mount is lit up in the sun.
I left the Badlands, and set out across the windswept grassy prairie heading to Sioux Falls. It was very very windy that day.
This old abandoned nearly destroyed grain elevator was in the tiny little town of Okaton.
On the dried up muddy banks of the Missouri River. The man in the picture told me that he collects fishing lures and weights and things that are exposed when the river is low.
I am in the eastern part of S. Dakota now, getting closer to Sioux Falls. I am noticing that the open prairie has been giving way more and more to corn fields. I am seeing that the windswept grasslands are turning into corn. The great wide open grassy plains, where the pronghorn prance and play, is transforming quite rapidly into fields of corn. I had been warned this was going to happen. I am entering … the corn belt.
Here is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. It is listed in all the tour books, and there are signs on the road indicating how many miles away it is and so on. So I decided to take a peek. I went in, and it is basically a sports arena. Its architecture is its claim to fame, with the outside murals being constructed using corn and grass and other grains.
I get into the city of Sioux Falls, check in at the Motel 6, and later on go downtown to take a look at the cities namesake -- Sioux Falls. The city was built around these falls, also known as The Falls on the Big Sioux River.
Day 9 – Sioux Fall SD to La Crosse WI I crossed into Minnesota, and just past the town of Luverne, walked out into a cornfield. The last harvest of the year had come and gone for pretty much every cornfield in the Midwest, so for the most part, the corn was simply standing there dead.
This picture represents the next four days. In a word -- Corn.
The dead corn, apparently, just remains there throughout the fall and winter. This was only October 1st.
After a few hours of freeway driving on I-90, I take the state highway that leads through the low hills of south eastern Minnesota.
This kind of reminded me of the misty lush green hills close to the Pacific Ocean in California.
I cross the Mississippi River and enter La Crosse, Wisconsin and check into the Econo Lodge. It was a fully equipped and pretty decent motel.
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