Good morning guys, so it's 5:23 in the morning
Still one hour till sunrise, but I've been driving a little bit around the park just to warm up the car
and myself, because it was freezing. it's 10 degrees out there. I think it went down to 8
I don't know, it doesn't really matter. It's really cold, so yeah
Waiting for sunrise. I think I know where I want to go, but there are some clouds there. Let me show you
That's where the Sun is rising from you can see some clouds
but hopefully that will be fine. More facts of this morning
I can't make hot coffee because I don't want to be out there boiling water. It's gonna take a while and I don't want to be out there
It's not worth it. I'll wait until it gets a little bit warmer
I was taking photos at sunset time yesterday, and my boots got wet
from the snow. Now they are pretty much frozen and completely wet and really cold, so I'm wearing tennis shoes
that is gonna limit me a little bit this morning about where I can go because if it's
icy or whatever, it's going to be very slippery with these shoes
For the fourth day the Badlands kept testing my determination
They gave me the coldest night of the trip yet
Anywhere other than the road was a mix of ice, snow and mud
Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was that I was limited to shooting from the road
Maybe I was tired after so many nights sleeping in the back of the car
Maybe that lack of a warm coffee that morning, maybe a combination of all of this
Whatever it was, I wasn't inspired. I couldn't find any composition I liked
The light was very good and the landscape beautiful, and I was there not being able to capture it the way I wanted
So I decided to stop trying and just enjoy
Later that day, I tried again and again to hike to somewhere, anywhere and again again, I kept failing
Finally I made a hard decision of calling it a trip and leave the park a day early
But even though the Badlands had beaten me, I wasn't going to leave without a fight
I had one sunset and one sunrise left, and I was going to give them my best try