Loading...
A little context actually helps here. We crossed South Dakota in the middle of a large summer storm system; south of us, in the midwest, several tornadoes had already struck. The wind was fierce, and Robert/Lobert the u-haul camel took every punch. The truck is hard to maneuver in crosswind; you have to compensate by turning into the wind pretty significantly, but then every you pass a wind block (highway wall, fence, a vehicle), the truck lurches because you're now overcompensating for the reduced wind pressure. It was a struggle for hours.
Meanwhile, the landscape was flat, flat, flat. The second photo, of Robert the Camel on a road, is typical of this view. But as we turned into Badlands, the ground suddenly fell away, and was broken as far as the eye could see. Turns out most of southern South Dakota is sitting on a plateau of soft sedimentary rock (flat) that is eroding at the edges (badlands).
Photographically, this was difficult. The storm was abating but still active, and the wind continued to gust to 30-40 mph. Basically we would scope out likely spots, gear up, sprint out / cower in the wind shadow of the truck, shoot photos, and move on. Hopefully the photos reflect that, although I am told the Badlands can be a serene prairie in good weather.
