Mother Nature: 1 Human Adventurers: 0

As I said below, we showed up at Badlands Nat Park last night at about 10:00 pm. The rain had started slowly just before we got there. It wasn't super bad when we were setting up camp, but it just kept getting progressively worse. The wind was relentless, too. It was blowing hard enough to drive water under our tiny tent's tarp. Actually, it could have been far worse. The tarp was being held down by two tiny stakes that I had driven into the ground. Had one of those slipped, the corner would have popped up and water would have poured into the tent. So through the night I was just praying that didn't happen.

We woke up and it was still raining, and hard. There are little shelters at each campsite, but that would have done us no good, since the angle of the rain was so sharp. So we just said screw it and got breakfast at the lodge. Sell outs.

After breakfast we went out in the car to try to do some hiking or biking. The problem is that it had apparently rained 12 of the last 14 days in the Badlands, even though in general it is a very dry place. Just out luck. The ground was SOAKED. Everything was pure mud. In most places you could hardly walk, let alone mountain bike. Climbing up on the sediment mounds would have been quite literally impossible, because the sides of them had turned into pure mud.

We did some biking in a relatively grassy field, trying to get a closer look at some sheep. Drove around a bit and took pictures after. We were done at noon. We had planned to spend the day at Badlands and go to Yellowstone tomorrow, but that plan has changed. Now we're headed to Mount Rushmore (which is right on the way) and hopefully will be in Yellowstone before dark. So we'll have 3 days in Yellowstone, maybe a fourth if we use our flex-day.

Meanwhile, we're driving west as I type this, and are just getting blasted by more rain and wind that is on its way to Badlands. Good decision bailing. Badlands will be there for at least a few thousand more years, so I can always go back. Spea later, bad weather.