Day 2: Hiking the Badlands / Finding Fossils

We took the day to hike around the Badlands.  We started out at the visitor center where the students participated in a Junior Ranger program.  Each of them "earned" their Junior Ranger badge!  From there we decided to spend the rest of the day hiking.  We stopped several places and explored the formations and looked for fossils.  After lunch we hiked in the Deer Haven area where there aren't established trails.  The hike was to enjoy the formations but to also look for fossils.  We found numerous fossil fragments, a couple of fossilized tortoise shells and the fossilized jaw of an animal. (see pics above).  The day was long, the weather was great and had a lot of fun!  ~Mr. Perez

Walking around the badlands was pretty cool, down around Deer Haven we would be walking and then someone would shout that they found a fossil, so everyone crowded around to get a good look.  It seemed the farther we walked the more pieces we found. Near the end there was a fragmented turtle shell!-Emilee

We went and looked at the scenery and the landscape. We also went climbing up this very steep and narrow mountain..i felt like i was going to die, it was so scary and hard at some parts. Saw some prairydogs and mule deer. We walked around a lot and saw some fossils and i found a thrown up tapeworm from an animal :) fun. The walking was fun but exhausting at the same time. It got pretty hot but then cooled down fast. The flowers out here are very pretty. The animals thought has to be my favorite part of this trip.  -Ashley.F.

We went on a long hike and looked at a lot of different flowers, plants, saw some different kinds of animals, and found several old turtle shells and other bones.  It was a lot of fun getting to see how big some of the turtle shells were.  It was pretty cold out but got a lot warmer so i burned pretty bad but its worth it. Also Ashley found a tape worm and that was pretty cool. - Amy G.

We were on a long hike and we found some interesting things, we found: fossils, non-fossilized bones, and alien plants that don't belong. We found lots of little jaw bones and lots of really thick chunks of bone, it was all quite interesting. I got one of those little stamp things that you attach to your walking stick that shows which national parks you've been to so that was cool. - John C.

We had a lot of things going on. We went to go looking at cliffs, climbed a little and also went on a hike. We even became junior rangers at the Badlands. On our hike we found a lot of small fossils but a few big ones as well, like a full skull of some kind of small deer and a small piece of a skull, that was the size of a fist, that we couldn't tell where it was from. It rained on us a little by the time we got back, but anyway, the whole day was great.  Fawna

Today we went on a couple of hikes in the Badlands, and I cannot even begin to tell you how breathtaking the views were.  Climbing up the rocks to a higher peak and seeing the vast amount of space they take up is just amazing! Also while we were hiking we were looking for fossils and most of our group were successful.  I on the other hand, mostly just took in the view.      Keating