Badlands National Park: Sunrise

Next stop on the Thanksgiving weekend tour: Badlands National Park. Up at 5 a.m., on the road by 5:15 to be in the park before sunrise. Consensus from the interwebz was that the Big Badlands Overlook was the best place to see it.  And who am I to argue with the interwebz?

Well, technically the first stop was the parking area where the Door, Window and Notch Trails begin.  It had a bathroom, and it's a long drive from Rapid City.  I feel like I commemorated the stop appropriately.

I can't say enough how fortunate I got with the weather.  Sure, it was chilly.  But it could have been frigid.  I'll take chilly given those options.

To get the most color from the sunrise, you gotta have clouds.  And to the north, there were some.

That moment -- that split-second -- when the sun first breaks the horizon.  I hope I never cease to be awed by it.

When are the Badlands not so bad?  When the newly risen sun paints them pale pink.

And just a few minutes later, the sunrise was technically over.  But my time in the park had barely begun!