Sunset in the Badlands

Henry and I spent yesterday evening in the South Unit of the park so Henry could spend some time watching the prairie dogs and I could watch the sunset.

We didn't drive the whole loop of the South Unit; we stopped at the first prairie dog colony, drove out to where we saw wild horses the night before, and then drove up to a higher spot in the park on the way out to watch the sunset.

We saw the coyote roaming through the prairie dog colony again, but it didn't look like he caught anything.  The prairie dogs were very chatty while he was around, and a whole section of them seemed to be standing up on their hind legs and yelling to one another.

It was a beautiful sunset.  The sky had a few clouds, and as the sun dropped behind some buttes, the sky turned pink and purple and the clouds picked up flecks of the sun.

After we watched the sunset, we drove back by the colony, and it was eerily quiet.  We didn't see any prairie dogs - they had all gone underground for the night.  We had no idea they did that.