The odd thing -- the sad thing -- is that it never would have occurred to me to come here, to go out of my way to visit this surreal corner of our country, had I not been in the neighborhood anyway, driving down a nearby stretch of Interstate 90 and needing to stop somewhere.

Which seems now like such a lapse, such an inversion of priorities. As a guy who once flew to New York City to see a Flemish painting (Petrus Christus' "Portrait de Jeune Fille," if you must know) you'd think I'd be methodically traveling the world, soaking up its splendors. That it would have occurred to me, before the age of 49, to notch a few national parks onto my belt, on general aesthetic principles.

But it didn't -- to me, there was always something dubious about those who seek out natural wonders, who hike up mountains and grovel before waterfalls.

The Sun-Times regrets the error.

Badlands is the first -- with Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Redwood and the Grand Canyon to come -- and frankly, I thought our first 15 minutes in the park were so moving, so superlative, the chance of anything topping it is nearly impossible. We had driven through hundreds of miles of desolate South Dakota farmland and ranchland when, entering the park, the green hills gave way to this vista of sculpted rock formations, stretching to the horizon in all directions.

via Chicago Sun-Times

Susan Pope

When she is not traveling or working as a researcher with the University of Alaska Anchorage, she enjoys biking, hiking, and skiing on the trails near her

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