I’ve lost track of the number of National Parks Anna and I have visited since we first began spending time in the West, but while it’s satisfying to remember pilgrimages to the famous ones — Yellowstone and Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Zion — some of the lesser known parks have stolen our hearts. Badlands National Park just across the border in South Dakota has vaulted to the front ranks of the smaller parks we love. If Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon are fully interactive — only fully appreciated miles in, on foot — the Badlands are perhaps less about hiking and doing and more about contemplating and appreciating. Because they’re in one of the nation’s northernmost states, and in June, it was only 83 degrees Fahrenheit when we visited, it doesn’t have the same ominous power as parks in the summer heat of Southern Utah and Arizona. And yet, their sublime harshness still brings to mind Rilke’s First Duino Elegy — “For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure because it so serenely disdains to destroy us.” The Badlands are everything their name implies, and yet beguiling, meditative, and so worth the long drive.

I brought both a Leica SL3 and a Leica M11 Monochrom, and I think it’s worth viewing the park as those two cameras’ sensors did, so we begin in color (SL3), and then shift to Black & White (M11 Monochrom.)

As always, click on image to see it full size.