I knew there was good skiing in Colorado, but otherwise I just pictured the scene from Dumb and Dumber when they're both on the motorbike driving through cornfields and Harry says, "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."

I admit it: I was that coastal ignoramus. East and West were all I knew.

Then last month I drove across the country from Oregon to New York. 27 years old and finally taking on this rite of passage.

Before we left, a neighbor gave us some tips for things to see that were close to the highway. (We were on a tight schedule to get to a wedding in NY and couldn't really take our sweet time.)

Well. Me oh my.

A night camping in Badlands National Park took my brain and blew it into a million pieces. Yes, that was me scraping brain off the rocks and putting them back into the big hole on top of my head. I'm not sure I put it all back together properly, but I digress...

I had very little expectations for South Dakota. In all honesty, I had very little expectations for the middle of the country as a whole.

Not only did I learn that the Rockies are indeed rocky, but they look a lot like the Andes in Argentina. They are, technically, the same mountain range after all.

I also found that these "flyover states" have some pretty interesting things going on. They are not to be overlooked. They are to be explored, for sure.

So I leave you with my photographic journey of the bad ass Badlands.