Fun Fact #382 The Badlands
Fun Fact #382
The Badlands
In late July while the Expedition had split into two groups to explore both the Missouri and The Yellow Stone rivers the explorers began to notice something odd. The terrain began to have long gashes in it, steep hills and sudden ravines all over the place limiting herds to stick around the river. While the surplus of food was a welcome change, they were entering what is now known as : The Badlands.
Badlands are a type of geological formation which is made primarily of sedimentary rock allowing the weather to easily erode the land by more than 1 inch a year –opposed to the normal rate of 1 inch every 100 years.This creates for a very dry, dynamic land which is dangerous to travel through and known for its lack of food. Notably at one point Lewis and his group were almost trampled by Bufflo which had been forced to travel in the same narrow trail through the rocks resulting in a broken canoe before meeting up with Clark.
The Badlands is still commonly avoided today, but are well worth the visit if you like hiking or other outdoor adventures, especially fossil hunting. The Badlands natrually unearth fossils all the time from erosion resulting in many people having made new fossil discoveries while just out on a hike.
