HDR Images In The Badlands of South Dakota

We’ve been on the road for 3 days and we’ve decided to take a previously ridden route from Cody Wyoming over the pass to Sheridan and then on to Sturgis. It is a great scenic route and I was looking forward to getting some nice digital images and maybe a few High Dynamic Range photographs. Little did we know that the route we were about to take was closed due to a rock slide over the pass.

What the hell is going on? We have had 100 degree heat, lightning, rain, freezing rain and it’s about to get worse. About an hour out of Cody we started to hit road construction and the next thing we new we came apon a road sign saying the road was closed one mile ahead do to a rock slide. Not that I’m a complainer but it would have been nice if they would have put the sign up 3 miles back at the junction, but what the heck, we just back tracked and headed to our alternate route, Worland Wyoming.

 

From Worland we headed over the pass and hit 20 more miles of road construction and one hell of a rain storm. The trip is starting to get interesting and one we’ll not soon forget. After all that’s why we do this, it’s all about the adventure. To our surprise, we made it through the day with all our body parts and bikes intact. We finally landed in Buffalo Wyoming to spend the night without touching my camera or taking a single image.

The next morning we had good weather and a relaxing ride into Spearfish South Dakota where we checked into our motel and headed to our favorite watering hole, the Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis. It is only Wednesday and things don’t start happening until around Friday or Saturday so things were a little quiet and relaxing. I took a quick shot of the bar to document the trip. This place will have over 10 thousand bikers raising hell here in a couple of days, but we’ll have to miss the party because we’ll probably be in Colorado or Utah buy then.

We decided to head out and ride the Badlands of South Dakota the next morning. This place is very different. It is comprised of just dirt and mud, you will have to look hard to find any sign of a rock anywhere. I decided to take a few HDR images just to document the trip and here is what I came up with.

Just outside the Badlands Park we stopped at a cool little Biker Bar. Roger and I stopped for a quick beer and I took this shot. Not great but, what the heck, it’s still a great memory of an adventure that both of us will remember for the rest of our lives.