primitive, open, remote, quiet, wild, scenic - a good road trip stop
I visited Sage Creek for one night in August 2017 during a solo cross country road trip. Though a very bare bones place to camp, it was one of my favorite overnight spots that month..
The only facilities are a couple pit toilets and picnic table shelters. No water. The campground is really one large circle, and it fills up with people. There isn't really an option for privacy.
However! It is a free place to camp and it is surrounded by hills and therefore sheltered by wind and morning / evening sun, and it is perfect if all you need is a place to sleep. A lot of folks passing through are also on long road trips, so you can chat and meet cool people on their own adventures. The sunset and sunrise were incredible, and at night you can hear coyotes howl and see the milky way. Bison and coyotes come through the campground on occasion. Despite being full of people, it felt quiet and peaceful and wild enough to have a taste of the landscape's true character. A bison grazed behind my tent all night and I slept incredibly sound.
I write when I travel, and as I watched the sunset from a hill above the campground I jotted down a poem:
Early August in the Badlands
The wind slides away today’s arid heat, swept
as if with a broom over the hills and horizon
following the sun’s trailing colors. The few trees and
grasses here sigh, relieved of harsh
hot
rays, but now deprived of productive light. The birds -
swallows, hawks -
make final swoops before giving way the sky to bats’ delight
of insects and nighttime desert flowers.
The moon shakes her shawl of clouds and dusty haze;
Brighter. Gleaming silver underwater. Twilight
is her shining moment before the first stars
chorus
behind her brief solo and eventually blanket the above
in a sparkling quilt. The crickets rejoice, as do the coyotes –
Now is their time to Sing and to Dance and to Thank
the moon and then roam, playfully, over the prairie.
