Nomad’s View
What a trippy place. This was extreme boondocking; camping on BLM lands in the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands (bordering the Badlands National Park) in what is known as “Nomad’s View”. The plan was to stay at this surreal spot for 5-6 days. We lasted one. One. But what a ride!!
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First up, I wanted to see the sunrise over the Badlands. I was up at 4:30 AM (yes, it’s true, I really did get my butt up at that time!) and was surprised to already see blue sky. The actual sun rose at 5:19 AM, with the moon still out. Look for the dot above “Lois”. It was beautiful, and the birds couldn’t agree more; such pretty songbirds chirping excitedly.
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I guess the birds knew something we didn’t, foreshadowing this days’ big surprise. We were packed with snacks and hiking boots and almost ready to make a day trip out into the deep Badlands. Within minutes however, the winds came. And I mean 50+ mph winds. Being parked on the edge of the cliff was a bit unsettling, and in fact became quite concerning when a fast friend made last night texted saying the Ranger suggested it was safer to stay put than move. Terror didn’t quite take hold of us, but we were both shaken (literally too). We rode it out for four hours until the wind had reduced sustained speeds of 25. Thank goodness the direction we parked had our nose almost directly head-on into the winds. Not so for other campers along the wall; I was so afraid of seeing someone get blown over (and possibly roll down over the cliff of which there’s been several accounts). Lots of them left much earlier than we did, but they could afford to since not being in as high-profile a box as our coach. We made the decision to leave as well, but needed to wait till we felt safe enough to turn broad side and high tail it outta there!
And that’s exactly what we did; managed to get back to the town of Wall and camp in civilization and safety.
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So our evening was spent at the not-to-be-missed WALL DRUG. A nice escape/distraction from earlier hours. What a blessing to experience this day and be in the wonders of God’s nature/wrath and come out safe, sound, and in wondrous awe.