Grasslands National Park

I had made a goal to see Grasslands National Park on the way west only because I had (a) never heard of it before and (b) it seemed like a good thing to do along the way.

The pictures won’t do it justice because of the vast expanses of land but I have to say it was the most extraordinary day, and worth every bit of extra time and effort.

There are two giant blocks of the park, based on two land donations from ranchers, but apparently the land between has also been obtained.  As I mentioned before, the entrances to the East Block and the West Block are 150 km apart, so you can get a sense of the size.

When we entered the west block, we drove 20 or so km to get to the first highlight:  the Black Tailed Prairie Dog Town.

These guys look pudgy and big (probably 10-12” high when they stand up), and they were everywhere, chipping out warnings to one another.  Their hole entrances were marked by large mounds of dirt, and they obviously were quite communal given that their mounds were only 4-5’ apart.

Our next stop was the trailhead of the 11.2 km Broken Hills Trail.

The first part of the trail went through classic grasslands.  Most of the vegetation was only about 1 foot in height, although a sparse number of shrubs might extend another 8” over that.  In areas where water collected to flow downhill, there was more vegetation.

All kinds of interesting flowers made their (brief) appearance, as if each had a small window of opportunity to bloom before shrivelling up from the heat.

As we progressed, the skies cleared, the sun shone, and the heat started increasing.  The second half of the trail evolved into badlands, where the vegetation was now only 4-6” high, including wild roses and cacti.

We were given warnings by another pair of walkers to expect bison ahead, close to the trail. 

(Rule of thumb from the park staff was that if you held your arm in front of you, and looked at your thumb (yes) and the thumb covered most of the animal in sight, you were at a safe distance.)  We were way too close, but still couldn’t resist getting a picture.

Note to Brian:  do not wear a red shirt when confronting a long bull, who soon will be going into rut..........

What a great day and a great place!