South Dakota’s Badlands erode one inch a year, and they’re full of ancient bones

It’s America’s most underrated national park

Badlands National Park covers nearly 243,000 acres in southwestern South Dakota, east of the Black Hills. You drive in, and the ground drops away into buttes, spires, and canyons carved over millions of years.

The Lakota people called this place “mako sica,” meaning “bad lands,” because of the rough terrain, extreme heat, and no water.

The land became a national monument in 1929 and a full national park in 1978. The formations here lose about an inch of rock every year.

So the park you see today will look different in your lifetime. What’s buried inside those layers goes back even further.

Fossils from 37 million years ago hide in the rock

The park holds the richest collection of Oligocene-age vertebrate fossils on Earth, dating back 28 to 37 million years.

Scientists have pulled more than 250 species from these rocks, including ancient horses, rhinos, saber-toothed cat-like animals, and tiny three-toed horses no bigger than a dog.

This land sat under an inland sea once, then turned into a tropical forest before drying out into the prairie you see now.

The Yellow Mounds along the road are ancient fossil soils, leftover seabed rock that weathered into bright mustard-colored layers.

At the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, you can watch paleontologists clean and prep real fossils inside the Fossil Preparation Lab.

Drive 27 miles through towering rock formations

The Badlands Loop Road runs 27 miles and connects most of the park’s overlooks and trailheads.

Towering formations rise right next to the pavement, close enough that you feel like you could reach out and touch them.

More than a dozen overlooks line the route, so you can see a huge stretch of the park without ever leaving your car. Pinnacles Overlook and Big Badlands Overlook give you sweeping views of ridges running to the horizon.

The Yellow Mounds Overlook stops you cold with layers of yellow, red, and purple rock stacked like a painter’s palette.

Climb a log ladder on the Notch Trail

The Notch Trail covers 1.5 miles round-trip and ranks as the most thrilling hike in the park.

You start in a canyon, and then the route sends you up a log ladder bolted into the rock. Then you follow a narrow ledge to the Notch, an overlook above White River Valley.

If you have a fear of heights, skip this one. Heavy rain makes the trail dangerous, so check conditions first. You pick up the trailhead at the south end of the Door and Window parking area.

Walk through a gap in the Badlands Wall

The Door Trail runs 0.75 miles round trip and starts as an accessible boardwalk leading through a natural gap in the Badlands Wall called the Door.

Past the boardwalk, a primitive path marked with posts lets you wander among the eroded formations up close.

Nearby, the Window Trail takes just 0.25 miles round trip and ends at a natural opening in the Wall with views down into a deeply eroded canyon.

Both trails share the same parking lot near the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, and they work for all ages and ability levels.

Hike 10 miles through the prairie on the Castle Trail

The Castle Trail stretches 10 miles round-trip, making it the longest maintained trail in the park.

It runs from the Door and Window parking area all the way to the Fossil Exhibit Trail, and the ground stays relatively flat the whole way.

You walk through mixed-grass prairie with colorful badlands formations rising around you, and bighorn sheep and pronghorn sometimes appear along the route.

If you want something shorter and steeper, the Saddle Pass Trail climbs 0.25 miles straight up the Badlands Wall with views over the White River Valley.

Saddle Pass connects to both the Castle Trail and the Medicine Root Loop, so you can mix and match.

Touch fossil replicas on the boardwalk trail

The Fossil Exhibit Trail is a fully accessible boardwalk covering about 0.25 miles round trip.

Display cases along the path hold fossil replicas of extinct creatures that once roamed this land, including ancient camels and elephant-sized mammals.

Interpretive signs walk you through 75 million years of geologic history, explaining how each colorful rock layer represents a different chapter.

You can touch the exhibits, and Braille text makes them accessible.

Find shade and wildlife on the Cliff Shelf loop

The Cliff Shelf Nature Trail loops half a mile along boardwalks and stairs through a juniper forest perched on the Badlands Wall.

You climb about 200 feet, and the feel changes completely from the dry, open landscape everywhere else in the park. A small pond sometimes forms here and draws deer and bighorn sheep down for a drink.

Shaded sections give you a break on hot summer days when the rest of the park bakes in the sun. The trailhead sits about half a mile north of the Ben Reifel Visitor Center.

Take the dirt road where bison roam free

Sage Creek Rim Road branches off the Badlands Loop Road and heads into the western half of the park on unpaved dirt and gravel.

The crowds thin out fast.

Rolling grasslands stretch in every direction, and this is one of the best spots in the park to see bison herds grazing on open prairie. Overlooks along the way include Hay Butte, Badlands Wilderness, and Sage Creek Basin.

At the end of the road, you reach the free Sage Creek Campground, one of the most remote campgrounds in the entire national park system.

Watch hundreds of prairie dogs pop out of their burrows

Roberts Prairie Dog Town sits along Sage Creek Rim Road, and hundreds of black-tailed prairie dogs call it home.

They stay active during the day, popping in and out of their burrows and chattering with more than 50 different squeaks.

These animals are a keystone species here, and their burrows provide shelter for other creatures like burrowing owls.

The flat, open ground makes this an easy stop and a favorite for families. Just keep your distance and never feed them.

Four species came back from the brink here

The park supports 49 mammal species, nine reptile species, and six amphibian species.

Four of those species were reintroduced after being nearly wiped out from the area: bison, bighorn sheep, black-footed ferret, and swift fox.

The bison herd arrived in 1963 from Theodore Roosevelt National Park and has grown to more than 1,000 animals. Pronghorn, mule deer, coyotes, golden eagles, and prairie rattlesnakes also roam the park.

The black-footed ferret is one of the most endangered mammals on the planet, and Badlands is one of the few places where they still live in the wild.

See 7,500 stars on a single clear night

Badlands has almost no light pollution and carries a Bortle Class 2 darkness rating. On a clear night, you can see more than 7,500 stars, the Milky Way, planets, star clusters, and shooting stars.

The National Park Service runs free Night Sky Viewings at the Cedar Pass Amphitheater throughout the summer, with rangers setting up telescopes and laser pointers.

Every year, the Badlands Astronomy Festival brings astronomers, educators, and visitors together for three days under the sky. Pinnacles Overlook, Panorama Point, and Big Badlands Overlook are the top spots to set up.

Explore Badlands National Park in South Dakota

You can reach Badlands National Park in about an hour by driving east from Rapid City.

The park has three entrances: Pinnacles Entrance from the west near Wall, Northeast Entrance off I-90 at Cactus Flat, and Interior Entrance from the south.

Admission runs $30 per vehicle and covers seven consecutive days.

The park stays open 24 hours a day, year-round. Stop by the Ben Reifel Visitor Center for exhibits, a bookstore, and the Fossil Preparation Lab.

Many people combine a Badlands trip with Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, and Wind Cave National Park in the nearby Black Hills.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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