day 205 - the badlands $

Did you participate in Scott Kelby's Photo Walk today? Me neither. I had every intention of doing it after doing it last year and thoroughly enjoying it, but nobody signed up to lead a walk in Kitchener. As a result, my dad and I did our own.

We hit the open road and headed for a spot I had heard about a year ago - the Cheltenham Badlands. It was AWESOME:



It was great as I was surrounded by my favourite things: my dad (Check the kid in the background who looks like he's climbing up his shoulder. The only way thing that could make this picture better is the kid holding an "I love Dale Earnhardt" sign. Bahahahaha.),



my favourite ripped jeans and my official photo walk shoes.



Oh! And a steeped tea.



We couldn't believe how cool it was and the fact that it was less than an hour from our house and we hadn't heard about it until recently.

We read up on it in the car and the website we were reading said "the cause of this phenomenon was poor farming practices in the 1930’s which caused overgrazing of this land". I wish I had a video clip of our reaction when we saw it. Mine went something like: "Holy shit! How crappy are your farming practices to do THIS?!":



Basically they stripped the land of all of the trees, exposing the red Queenston shale and it eroded to this:



The greenish grey bands were also interesting. Their formation has something to do with oxides in the water but what was really cool was that they traveled over the bumps in lines. It looked like somebody went crazy with a can of spray paint.








Apparently it's pretty close to what it looks like in Arizona. Having never been there, I can't agree or disagree. There were moments however where it seemed almost Mars-like (never been there either...obviously):



As I was standing here taking this picture of my dad doing his "I climbed all the way to the top" Rocky pose, I heard a guy behind me yell at his son:

Random Guy: "Where's your sister?"
Random Kid: "She's over there. She peed her pants!"
::Random Guy sighs and walks off::

Bahahahahaha. You know, it's so much funnier when it's not your kid.



Although it's not my official picture of the day, this is my favourite picture I took today. I like the highway off in the distance. It's unbelievable to me that we were driving down this road and it looked like any other road you'd find in Southwestern Ontario. Lots of trees, a couple of hills and then all of a sudden you crest a hill and smash into a tourist who has slammed on the brakes having seen something this unusual just feet from the side of the road. Thank god this was not the case for us, but apparently there are a pile of accidents every year, so be careful if you go.



My other favourite picture of the day? This one that I took of my mom's clematis plant. The second we left the badlands, it started to rain and it rained for the remainder of the afternoon.



Wow. That was long. Thanks for sticking with it if you have read this far and thanks Dad for a great day. xo

Comments

Mari said…
What a neat place! I can't believe that is a result of poor farming practices. I would love to visit. Your clematis picture is a perfect contrast!
Anonymous said…
Wow. I've never heard of this place and I travelled eastern Canada for Country Guide for 12 years. How could I not know this? I'm going. Great shots, Jenn. Just found your blog today -- now I'll never get any work done!

KS