We drove the Badlands Scenic Road again, hoping for some clearer skies, but there was still too much smoke to see very far. Plus, there were lots of clouds. But this area is beautiful, even without blue skies! We stopped at more of the overlooks than we did yesterday. We saw some of the same bighorn sheep that we saw yesterday, but some were on a cliff, and a small group was running across the road ahead of us.
The highlight of the day was seeing several burrowing owls! Tommie spotted the first one sitting on a prairie dog mound. This was in the area with dirt roads, so there wasn't much traffic. We watched him for a while and took pictures. Then we noticed that the birds flying in the area were mostly more owls! After that, we could watch where they landed and find them on the ground. There was one group of about four that was too far away to photograph, but we saw one fuzzy juvenile sitting on his mound. His mom was hunkered down in the burrow below him. When a truck went by, the baby scooted into the hole, and after that he and his mom sat together. We saw another adult land not too far away, and we think that was the dad who was keeping vigil. We sat in the car and watched for about an hour!
After that we came back to the campground and did laundry while we roamed some more of the stores in Wall.
This keeps us on the trail!
The landscape here is amazing!
Wildflowers
Bighorn sheep.
One man told me they were mountain goats, but when I corrected him,
I don't think he believed me!
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