FINDING FACE TIME IN RUSHMORE COUNTRY
GET OUT TO South Dakota Black Hills and Badlands.
GEAR UP FOR Mountain-face memorials, bighorn sheep, spectacular sunrises, starry nights, Deadwood 2.0.
PERFECT FOR Wildlife and landscape lovers, young and old, fit and not-so.
When a herd of bighorn sheep is thoughtful enough to be posing this majestically on the edge of a landscape this extraordinary, humans in passing vehicles are obliged to reciprocate accordingly. We all know the drill:
1. Point excitedly from car window and quickly pull over.
2. Trot briskly but quietly to safe, optimal viewing point near cliff.
3. Raise camera phone and keep murmuring “wow” to no one in particular.
Doing otherwise would just be rude—and don’t think the indigenous fauna in these parts won’t notice.
“Do you think they know we’re here?” whispers a young voice in a crowd of wild-sheep paparazzi gawking at a bonanza of bighorns perched by a roadside bluff in Badlands National Park.
Oh, they know. Just check out any Gary Larson cartoon from the early ’90s if there’s a shred of doubt in your mind that these studly ungulates will be cracking open some beers and lampooning all of us bright-eyed humans the second we get back in our cars.
But right now, we’re all dutifully playing our given parts. Moms, uncles, and grandkids. Rams, lambs, and ewes. All gathered here on one of the more remarkable fringes of the old, sufficiently still-wild frontier. Backdropped by a breeze-dried sea of South Dakota Badlands rolling to infinity between dusty Sage Creek Road and a horizon of wispy clouds. Snap and stare all you want. It’s too much to get your lens and retinas around.
Soon enough, the next convoy of wildlife watchers is relieving us—pulling over, trotting up from the road, and reaching for their phone cameras. Our shift is done here. Goodbye, bighorns. Thanks for your time.
“Lotsa bison and prairie dogs down the road if you’re heading in that direction,” a new arrival congenially points out as we’re walking away.
Of course we’re heading in that direction. Bison and prairie dogs, please assume your positions. Here we come.
Great Faces, Great Places.
