Rattlesnakes and rainstorms

WOW. What a week! I had the best intentions of blogging about our trip to the Badlands this week, but we were up at the butt-crack of dawn and out the door by 4:30 a.m. taking photos in the dawn. We came in about 10 a.m. and had a wonderful breakfast at the newly remodeled Roughrider Hotel.
There is a picture painted by Sam Coleman in the lobby. So guess what? We rain into Sam and Sarah and her brother and sister-in-law (and Gabe) just roaming around.
That was a great start to the week. There was a parade of horses and buggies, and then off to the park. We took a break after breakfast each day and then returned to the park about 6:30 p.m.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. We shot wild horses, wild flowers, buffalo and landscapes. There were people from Virginia, Maryland, Ohio. Florida and South Dakota armed with cameras and tripods. Many had not expected the beauty of the Badlands. It was green as green could be.
Thursday morning, about 1:30 a.m. a storm moved through and the electricity went out until about 7:30 a.m. Most alarm clocks did not go off. The halls were dark. I woke at 4 a.m. with my cell phone alarm, and opened the window. The whole town was dark and the room was stuffy because the air conditioning was off. I heard Bill say, "Tell Pat to call me if they go. I'm going back to the hotel." I figured that if Bill was sleeping in - so was I.
I woke at 5:30, J.C. was still sound asleep. It was pouring down rain so I went back to sleep until about 6:30 a.m.
We decided to get up and see what was happening. It was quiet and we knew there would be no coffee.
Most of the group was gone so we hopped in the car and took off.
The air was fresh and clear as the sun came over the horizon, so naturally we stopped along the way to shoot landscapes and flowers knowing the rest of the group would be where the wild horses ate breakfast.
As we were coming down the slope heading towards the car I followed JCs steps through the slippery gray clay saturated with the heavy rain - and slick as could be. I was a step from the curb when I glanced at my foot as it came down about an inch from what looked like a dead snake. Wrong. JC went back to investigate and it quickly curled into a gray coil and started rattling. Whoops, time to leave.
Shortly thereafter we found a few folks staring at the distance. It was our group watching three people that had hiked quite a distance towards a group of wild horses.
We marveled at the sky as it blackened and lightning began to spark across the entire horizon. Before the rain, we were a bit jealous we had not been there to join the hikers. Then, the rain came. It came hard and fast across that meadow soaking the three photographers and creating a somewhat difficult terrain to cross. There were gully washers and of course, the clay became even more slippery and collected on the soles of any type of shoe.
We watched and waited while the three crossed the grass and stream. That was the easy part. They had to make it up the bentonite butte face. When they disappeared behind the butte, Pat and JC started towards them realizing that they were cold and tired. By the time the five made it back to the road they were covered with clay but all were in good spirits.
I thank God I wasn't up any earlier because I would have made that trek across the valley and gotten caught with 10 pounds of gear. I would not have made it up the hill. On a final note, camera tripods and monopods can be used as walking sticks in case of emergencies.
All ended well and our out-of-state visitors will not forget their day in a Badlands rain.