I recently took a break from my regular routine and traveled to South Dakota for a photo safari with my friend and fellow photographer Jennifer Simonson. We made the rounds of the tourists stops and then settled in for a few days on a ranch in the Badlands. Our time in the Interior, SD was by far the best, and hottest, days of our trip. We joined forces and woke each other up at 4:00am to head up Sheep Mountain to photograph the sunrise, and kept each other going to photograph each sunset.

We passed through the small town of Scenic, SD. In 1981 a photo of the bar in Scenic appear in a National Geographic story shot by Jim Brandenburg , today the town is almost completely shut down except for a post office and small store. At this point Scenic, SD can call itself the only bathroom between Rapid City and Interior on Hwy. 44, and we were thankful for it.

It was refreshing to see land without buildings and the sky full of stars.