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Striped buttes under a prairie sky

Fig. 1Striped buttes under a prairie sky

Photo: Martin Kraft · CC BY-SA 3.0

Landform

Eroded claystone and sandstone buttes striped in ash and ancient soil, breaking a mixed-grass prairie. Fossil beds of the White River Group.

Field note

French-Canadian trappers called it les mauvaises terres à traverser — bad lands to travel across. Dawn and dusk turn the stripes peach and violet. Bison still graze the grass between the buttes.

A private leaf

Prints from Badlands


Instant paper, this copy only. Write on the white — a line the walk still owes you.

The prints

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Opening the leaf…

Onward

A day's country


The nearest plates, by the miles.

Hills chapter

More hills destinations


Other US hills plates. See all hills destinations in the USA

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Vintage map of the United States