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If there’s one thing that a year on the road taught me, it’s to expect the unexpected. Whether it’s meeting a person that changes everything, a mouse deciding that your car would make a nice apartment, or a flat tire at the most inopportune time, even the most thought-out plans have a way of unraveling when living out of a car and a backpack. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. While at times these roadblocks and detours could certainly be frustrating, I found that it was often the unexpected, unplanned moments that filled me with the greatest sense of awe and wonder. I was reminded of this at the start of the second part of my trip, where Badlands National Park was one of my first stops. The idea of stopping at the park had only been formed earlier in the day, while looking at a map of Iowa and the surrounding states that was outside of the bathroom at a campground that I had stayed at. The red line that designated I-90 drove right past the Badlands, and since wildfires in Wyoming had dashed my original plans, I already had an open itinerary. After I entered the park and reached a high point on the road, the rippled, barren badlands reached out towards the seemingly endless plain, forming a surreal landscape unlike anything I had ever seen before. What I hadn’t noticed earlier, but was now very clear, was that a vicious storm was forming on the horizon. I grabbed my camera and watched and photographed the storm from a cliff edge; an unforgettable and entirely unexpected experience. Afterwards, I couldn’t help but think about the circumstances that led me to witness what I had just seen. How if it weren’t for a wildfire in Wyoming and a map on a bathroom wall, I wouldn’t be right here, right now. As I smiled at these thoughts and slowly rolled down the gravel road with some Allman Brothers on the radio, the dark and ominous clouds over the prairie ahead began to clear, and a rainbow touched down on the timeless, golden plains of South Dakota.

Copyright
Joseph Priola
Image Size
2000x1000 / 1.6MB
Keywords
Contained in galleries
American West
If there’s one thing that a year on the road taught me, it’s to expect the unexpected. Whether it’s meeting a person that changes everything, a mouse deciding that your car would make a nice apartment, or a flat tire at the most inopportune time, even the most thought-out plans have a way of unraveling when living out of a car and a backpack. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. While at times these roadblocks and detours could certainly be frustrating, I found that it was often the unexpected, unplanned moments that filled me with the greatest sense of awe and wonder. I was reminded of this at the start of the second part of my trip, where Badlands National Park was one of my first stops. The idea of stopping at the park had only been formed earlier in the day, while looking at a map of Iowa and the surrounding states that was outside of the bathroom at a campground that I had stayed at. The red line that designated I-90 drove right past the Badlands, and since wildfires in Wyoming had dashed my original plans, I already had an open itinerary. After I entered the park and reached a high point on the road, the rippled, barren badlands reached out towards the seemingly endless plain, forming a surreal landscape unlike anything I had ever seen before. What I hadn’t noticed earlier, but was now very clear, was that a vicious storm was forming on the horizon. I grabbed my camera and watched and photographed the storm from a cliff edge; an unforgettable and entirely unexpected experience. Afterwards, I couldn’t help but think about the circumstances that led me to witness what I had just seen. How if it weren’t for a wildfire in Wyoming and a map on a bathroom wall, I wouldn’t be right here, right now. As I smiled at these thoughts and slowly rolled down the gravel road with some Allman Brothers on the radio, the dark and ominous clouds over the prairie ahead began to clear, and a rainbow touched down on the timeless, golden plains of South Dakota.
Joey Priola Wilderness Photography