The Germans woke me up at 5am, before the sun came up. They were loud and close by, using my picnic table. Finally they left and I slept until about 8 o’clock.
I drove back to the east side of the badlands, the most-visited side where there is a visitor center, amphitheater, restaurant, and $10 campsite. I figured I’d stay at that campsite while I did the trails on that side. I reserved my spot, set up my tent, and went over to the visitor center to get info.
I asked the lady at the visitor center what was in the lower unit and she said “More badlands.” She also pointed out a road down there that I could drive if I had a high-clearance vehicle (I do).
After breakfast I hiked all the nearby trails, which are all less than 3 miles each. The two most interesting were Notch, which takes you up a steep incline to a grand vista, and Door, which drops you into an open badlands area. Window and Cliff were not really hikes, more like walks on a boardwalk.
After that I got ice at the lodge and headed back to camp for a nap. When I woke up I asked the camp host if there were showers anywhere, but she said there were none in the park. But there is a motel/campground a few miles down the road called the Budget Host Inn, which offers showers, but she didn’t know for how much. So I took a ride down to the Inn on my bike to ask: $3.50. When I got back I stopped by the host site again to tell her the price, but her husband was there reading at the picnic table. When I got his attention he had to put the book down, take off his glasses, and walk over to my bike. I told him the showers were $3.50 but he didn’t seem to care. He seemed more bothered by my interrupting his reading. They were an old couple in an RV.
At my campsite I tried to find a radio station on my camp radio. On AM I could only get Rush Limbaugh. On FM I was happy to find NPR doing a jazz segment with jazz songs that related to labor (it was labor day). For example, they played Ella’s ‘Nice Work if You Can Get It.’
