First stop — Badlands National Park in South Dakota.
An all day drive from Madison, if you start at 4 a.m. We did — leave at 4 a.m., that is –and so we arrived with enough light to set up camp before catching a dozen shots of the park dressed in the light of the setting sun.
In the morning we explored several trails, including this one across from the Visitor’s Center which led up the the peaks of those jagged formations. They were crumbly, slippery, and high. Hint: I did not climb all the way to the top this year. After all, it was only the second day out, and I wanted to stay in good condition for the next destinations.
My new camera is proving to be great, when I can remember the many settings, all of which are in different places than my Olympus. I only practiced with it for a couple of weeks before we left for the trip, and I am painfully aware that I don’t know the new camera as well as I knew my old one. I hope by the end of this trip, I’ll have learned this ins and outs of this camera.




