Getting the flavor of...The beauty of the Badlands

The beauty of the Badlands

In South Dakota’s Badlands, “what you see today will be different tomorrow,” said Kara Silva in the Chicago Tribune. The 244,000-acre Badlands National Park is “a geological gem,” a collection of canyons, buttes, and ridges that’s also one of the fastest-eroding landscapes in the world. During a camping trip with my sister and a friend, “hiking through the park often felt like a lunar experience,” and we were glad to be able to cover more ground by driving the 32-mile Badlands Scenic Loop. At sunset, we witnessed “beautiful displays of color against the stone,” followed by “world-class stargazing.” On one of our nights in the park, we stayed at a campground close to the town of Interior, population 67, whose two colorful taverns made it a surprisingly good place for barhopping. But on a clear night, get yourself outside. “Stretching from each horizon, the sheer number of visible stars paints a perfect picture of the universe’s immensity.”

Seattle’s summer secret

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If you overhear the phrase “summer at the lake” in Seattle, the talk is probably about Lake Chelan, said Christopher Reynolds in the Los Angeles Times. Located 175 miles east, the narrow, deep, 50-mile-long lake “meanders among the green slopes of the Cascades” and terminates in a small town with a century-old, 170-room inn. Campbell’s Resort is a little pricey, but “the first view of the lake from our balcony half-paralyzed us, it was so idyllic: Little kids splashed in the shallows and crafted sand castles on the beach,” teens plunged from the diving boards, and moms “gathered to sip adult refreshments while the water lapped at their knees.” We spent most of our time lounging lakeside, though we did venture out to a local winery. Next time, I may lobby to visit Stehekin, a community on the far end of the lake that offers rafting and horseback riding. “Then again, a few more days of swim-read-eat-nap-repeat sounds pretty good too.”