Badlands National Park | EP.03 | BTS
Welcome back everyone for Episode 3 of A Long Time Coming! This episode is one that we’ve been looking forward to since the days we filmed it. It is very near and dear to our hearts and dives into a little of our origin story of life on the road!
View from camp of the Badlands
Of all the places we enjoyed for this series, Badlands National Park is the only we have any real experience in but knew that we couldn’t skip it for this trip. The Badlands have carried a lot of weight for us as it was the first place we felt “far away” in when we did a post college road trip. Of all the places we visited on that trip in 2012, the Badlands just felt really special to us. I think it was just the first time that we felt like we were going out into the world for ourselves. Before that, we were in college, stationary and had never traveled without our families. But in the Badlands it was so new of foreign to the both of us, and we were wading into this new territory together.
In the episode we flipped through a bunch of photos and video clips faster than you will be able to really take in, which was intentional. But I wanted to share some of those photos here so you could have a chance to look through them at your own pace. When I look at these, a few things jump out to me…
We’re so young. Obviously. But I just can see how green we were to traveling, to life, to being together, to everything.
I remember how exited we were because literally everything we did for 6 months was completely new to us! We felt so lucky to be able to take some time to explore freely without the pressure to go right into the real world and start working. If we hadn’t taken this trip I can tell you, for a FACT, we would not be doing what we’re doing right now.
Thankfully our photography has come a long way, but I’d so happy to have these records of such a momentous time in our lives.
We did the right thing for us at the time, and it has positively effected every aspect of life ever since.
Owen taking in a familiar seen that always manages to feel new
Now that we’ve been traveling for 7 years and have been to a hefty number of National Parks, we were curious if the Bandlands were as amazing as we remembered them being, or if it was just our lack of experience at the time. Spoiler alert… It’s still as good as we remember it being.
The austere landscape of the park leaves a lot of room for you and your thoughts. I’m suspicious that is the reason we love the desert in general. However, there is something really special happening in this part of South Dakota and we’ve never seen anything quite like it. During our visit we wanted to do some things different than our first visit to we could visit and get a different but familiar experience.
MAK exposing some film while looking for fossils in the remote reaches of the park
After stopping in the visitor center and chatting with some of the paleontologists in the fossil lab we knew that we had to go out looking for fossils. We found a quiet part of the park that we had yet to visit and set off on foot to see what we could find.
The textures of the landscape was so fun to watch change as we wove through the formations looking for fossils.
We had so much luck on our fossil hike however this bone above was the real highlight of our time in the park! I’m a big fossil nerd/rock hound and this is BY FAR the best fossil I’ve ever found. Needless to say, I rode this high for days after!
MAK & Owen enjoying a quiet night by “candle light”
As mentioned in the video, the was challenging while we were in the Badlands. One afternoon while we were heading to camp we came across a group of road cyclists who were hiding in the shade of a tiny tarp on the side of the road. As always we pulled over to ask if they needed any water being that it was over 100 degrees. Thankfully we did as they all seemed to need some though reluctant at first. As we filled up all their water bottles we got to chatting and the group of friends does a lot of multi-day rides together as a group but understandably they were having a hard time on this trip due to the heat. As Owen and I pulled back onto the road we looked at each other and said agreed that “you couldn’t pay me enough money to bike in this heat”.
The extreme heat however, made for some incredible sunsets and sunrises.
Camping in/near the Badlands was really easy! Thankfully there are free boondocking spots right outside of the park which made our stay near the park very easy. The spots also had incredible views which is obviously a huge bonus!
MAK taking one last glimpse of the Badlands before heading further east
Thank you all so much for joining us for the third installment of the series in both video and blog form! We will see you next week for Episode 4!
Love, MAK
Thank you to our sponsors
These brands made it possible for us to document our travels through the Northern Midwest and turn it into this series! Without their support none of this would be possible! We’re forever grateful to have brands we already use and love on our side to help us create something we’re proud of!
Presenting Sponsors
We’ve trusted our Jetboil cooking systems for years. Our favorite, the Flash Cooking system is lightweight, compact and perfect for any trip! If we are cooking on trail, or making coffee with a view… it’s with a Jetboil.
Maps are your best friend when you’re on the road. On X makes it easy to find open routes and trails no matter where we are. On X allows us to access saved maps offline so we can locate ourselves in the wild when there’s no service.
We’ve now been living out of our flat-bed Four Wheel Camper for 3 years. FWC builds comfortable and durable campers that can fit on any truck. We can confidently say that our FWC is the most comfortable and livable rig we’ve had in all our years on the road!
Tires can be some of the best insurance when you are out in remote places. We love and trust our Toyo ATIII’s to get us in and out safely, no matter the terrain. They’re amazing in mud, moon dust, loose rocks, slick rock, you name it!
Power and power management are key to living and working full time from the road. Our mobile lives run on a Redarc Manager 30. It’s a state-of-the-art battery management system that charges and maintains auxiliary batteries by incorporating AC, DC and solar inputs. We’re not sure where we’d be without it!
Supporting Sponsors
Our work life is powered by Battle Born. They make the best lithium batteries on the market and are a crucial part of our power system that enables us to work from the road!
We’ve been in a deep love affair with Bedrock Sandals for nearly as long as we’ve been on the road. They make the best go anywhere, do anything adventure sandals!
Born from our rebellious philosophy to question everything, we feel right at home in KÜHL. Making everything from hiking clothing to casual wear KÜHL has us covered.
Our photo and video gear lives a tough life out on the road. Pelican protects everything from our microphones to our film cameras! They are tough and take the fear out of bringing the equipment we need with us!
Sawyer has been our go-to water filtration system for as long as we’ve been hiking. We love them for their Clean Water For All program that brings clean water to those without all over the world!
