On Sunday, we stayed in St. Joseph, Missouri. We went down to the Missouri River–the Big Muddy–and took some pictures. On Monday, our main stop was in the Badlands of South Dakota. They were amazing. The prairie drops off into a vast expanse of desert-like hills of stone. The stone mountains are striated red and white. Of course, the signs around the park have all sorts of wonderful “reasons” for the striation, but it seems to me that God sent a Flood that may have had something to do with the layering. Scientists have found all kinds of aquatic fossils in the hills, leading them to believe that water once covered the area. Fancy that.

Sometimes the Badlands are almost normal-looking hills, but in some places they look like a moonscape–desolate and waterless. As Dad suggested, maybe this is where the Apollo missions really went. :) (Of course, I don’t exactly subscribe to the theory that we never made it to the moon.) Above all, I was impressed by how gracious our Creator is. The Badlands are a example of the many geological formations in which God used an utter catastrophe to make something breathtakingly beautiful. Truly, “if I don’t praise Him, the rocks are gonna cry out,” as the old Negro spiritual says.

See the gallery for pictures of the Badlands and the Missouri River.