Magic can return. When I last visited Badlands National Park in 2009, I experienced a sunrise on a wonderfully named trail: The Door. The long stretch of the badland pinnacles are called the Wall, and this trail goes through an opening in the Wall called the Door. Once through the Door, in daylight you can see the badlands extend far to the east and south, and the Wall stands high to your west. Dan and I went through the Door after the new moon set and before first light to view and photograph the stars. The sky was clear and the Milky Way reached above us. The starlight was intense enough to see where to walk, but you couldn’t see any distant features near the ground. Astronomical twilight was just beginning. Astronomical twilight begins (or ends) when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon and its light just begins to show.
Milky Way above the Badlands
As the sun gets between 12▫ and 6▫, nautical twilight arrives. Stars begin to disappear and land features start to show details.
Ship sails in nautical twilight
Dan found a level spot near the Wall to capture the last of the stars.
Badlands Wall
Mourning Doves begin to coo and Meadowlarks sing as nearly all stars disappear and color begins to appear in the sky. Well into civil twilight, the next image is five minutes before sunrise, and soft light is reaching further down into the badland features.
In the image above, you can see clouds near the horizon behind the peak on the left. The next image is taken three minutes later and the clouds are catching the light and color of the sun still just below the horizon.
On clear days such as this, the best color of the day would be gone once the sun gets up. Time to act quickly and look for good compositions in the eroded features and clouds.
A route southeast?
Looking to the northeast, the sky glows orange. About time to get to camp, have something to eat and take a nap.
Badlands National Park dawn