Great Plains @ Western South Dakota

I was planning to go to Badlands since I moved here in Chicago area. But somehow it was not happening. But this time, I got company and we drove to South Dakota finally.

Our goal was to visit Custer State park, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and of course Badlands NP.
We saw lots of wildlife both in the state park and in the national park as well.
We had to face rain and cloudy sky multiple times but due to crazy light and shadow setting some of the pictures turned out very interesting.

It was a long drive but paid off really really well :) Badlands is a beautiful gorgeous national park and perfectly justify its name :) [ I am giving it a nickname - "Bindaas Badlands"].

We camped for 2 days - one night at state park and another night at Badlands. Both campsites were very nice and well equipped. There was light/medium rain in the night while we were at our tent trying to sleep. In fact rain sound was rather relaxing and helped us to sleep well :) [or we were extremely tired, who knows ]

On the second night of our camping we had to eat outside of the park. There is a tiny city [population is only 67] called Interior. We went to a local bar [Horseshoe bar] and owner baked us a pizza :) and there were 7 people in that bar [ so ~10% of total population :P]. We met two other persons there - Martina and one of her friends [Carmelita ?]. They informed us about a good breakfast service in the park and we had that in the next morning and that was pretty good.

We reached home at 3:30 am after a 12-hour drive :) Altogether we had to drive 2000+ miles in this trip :) 

Here are the picture albums:

Custer State Park: Flickr Album

Badlands National Park: Flickr Album

Also check out Abhishek's album on Flickr : Album

Mount Mitchell State Park @NC

Blue Ridge parkway is one of the beautiful driveways in the East coast. We went to Mount Mitchell State Park/Black mountain area last week. We camped one night at the state park and another night at Curtis Creek (in Pisgah National Forest). Weather was wonderful.

We met two very interesting persons - David and Dennis.
David is an adventurer, photographer, blogger and nomad (according to his card). He is traveling with his motorcycle.
Dennis volunteers to host in Curtis Creek campsite. He practically lives there with his family.

Here are some pictures:

Flickr Album