5/21/13 Toadstool Park, NE

More rain and wind today, but we went out anyway because it is our last day here and we didn’t want to spend it inside.
 We headed west, just past Crawford, Nebraska is a unique place called Toadstool Geologic Park. Early French fur traders called this landscape “terres mauvais,” or badlands. When we saw the badlands in South Dakota a few years ago, I could envision the bad guys hiding out there, well; we got the same feeling today walking through the toadstools.  
The Toadstools are sandstone slabs perched upon eroding clay pedestals. The erosion has been caused by years of the unrelenting forces of wind and water. It had rained yesterday causing the dry clay riverbeds to become slick and muddy, making walking tricky. Added to trying to keep our balance through these slimy clay tracks was a constant cold wind, blowing at 30mph with gusts up to at least 40mph. It was strong enough to have to lean into, then it would suddenly quit, but you are still leaning, so then you are waving arms trying to counter balance. I’m sure that had there been anyone watching, they would have been rolling through the slime laughing at this old lady (who has zero balance on a smooth flat surface!) climbing over the rocks, around narrow ledges, down through the gullies and slipping and sliding through the muck of wet clay!! 
There is a commercial on TV where a couple is wandering around a rocky dessert landscape looking for their car, the car is just over the ridge, but they can’t find it. I was reminded of that when we took the one mile trail through the Toadstools. Without the trail markers, we could have easily gotten lost!
 Nearby the Toadstools is an area where ancient hunters ran Buffalo herds off a cliff in order to kill the huge beasts. They would then work their way to the bottom of the cliff and butcher the beasts in order to haul the meat and hides back to the villages, leaving the bones behind. This area has become known as the killing fields and is now protected by the park systems. Just our luck, the area was closed until May 26, just 5 days from now!!
So, we returned home, tired and muddy and wind burned, but it was a great day!

  Toadstools, 

Toadstools, heavy rock on top of clay

 

We called this one witch kissing dolphin - 

This next one is of Nita and I sitting on a natural bench during the hike.  You can see how bundled up we were against the wind and rain.

 John at one of the narrow passages we had to go through:

more toadstools