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First Stop - Badlands of South Dakota

A good view of the Badlands second day out.  I think the worst part of my trip was leaving home and going north in I-35 to Minnesota, then going west on I-90 through Minnesota.  Some of the most boring, dull and uninteresting scenery I've ever seen. 

The Badlands was very hot, dry and windy the few hours I spent there.  However, it was clear enough to see a great distance, and I was able to get many photos - but after awhile, dried mud all starts to look the same.  This view is a short distance from the entrance off of I-90.

Over the Bighorn Mountains

I diverted from I-90 and took Wyoming 14 west to tackle the Bighorn.  Perfect weather going up the east side, as you can see from the photos. but halfway across, a rain cloud, lots of them I figure, came rolling in.  By then, I was at 9700 feet elevation, and it was white out time.  But before this rain cloud hit, I managed to photograph a young moose.  He was about 1/2 mile away, and taken with a 500mm telephoto.  It was the only moose I saw the whole trip.

A view looking eastward from my initial drive up the east slope.

Onward, I had no idea what was in store for me coming down the west side.  I had known the weather can change quickly in the mountains,  but I had no idea just how fast!

Above is what laid ahead for me, and the photo on the right is what I saw just outside the driver side window.  The clouds were enveloping me, and I couldn't see 30 feet ahead.  And it was all downhill, too.

From 9700 feet and padded in by clouds, it wasn't until 6300 feet that I drove out from under the clouds and could finally see land.  The picture above shows my location, traveling west (towards the left side of the image) and I had just negotiated the most curvy part of the road, and I couldn't see a thing the whole time.  When I was clear of the clouds, I pulled off onto a small road, turned around and took the photo below. 

It's pretty strange driving through rain clouds.  It's not like heavy fog, more like heavy mist with raindrops mixed in.   I was really glad I was out of that.

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