Badlands National Park is located in western South Dakota and preserves a series of rock formations shaped by wind and water that stand as sentinels across the plains of the Midwest. The rock formations are sublime and provide ever-changing views to the visitors of the park.
We arrived in the park in the late afternoon and decided to drive straight to the visitor center and the Cedar Pass campground in order to set up our camp. Our campsite was a bit open to the elements (it is the Midwest!), but we had the beautiful view from our tent of a jutting rock formation that seemed to loom larger than all the others. It was getting on toward evening after we were done, but we decided to drive along the park road for awhile. This was one of our best decisions of the trip and something we carried on each place we visited.
We drove west and had the road almost all to ourselves. We ran into people here and there, but it was not at all crowded, and we could stop and go mostly as we pleased. Because we were out later and the sun was setting, the light played off the rock formations in brilliant and photogenic ways, making everything seem ablaze rather than the white-washed appearance visitors normally see during the middle of the day. Venturing out around dusk also allowed us to see a lot more animals than are out during the day. As we drove we saw a Pronghorn out in the distance, and soon came across prairie dog villages that looked as busy as city streets. To our left were beautiful, sweeping views across the plain, dotted by rock formations, and to our left were pinnacles and spires that slowly swept down to the valley. As we drove we were greeted by new perspectives. We stopped at the Yellow Mounds Overlook, a fantastic place where hills with bands of dark gray, mustard, and rust contrasted with each other in the fading sunlight.
We returned to our campsite, still admiring the views, but this time being met on the road by a few friendly faces–bighorn sheep. The horned critters live in the cliffs during the day, but venture to the plateau to graze during the mornings and evenings when the temperatures cool. We were on their time, not ours, so we just enjoyed getting to see the sheep so close. After they finally moved, we made one more stop along the road to see the sun disappear beneath the horizon, getting to the last red beams fade from sight over the jagged edges of the Badlands.
The next morning we awoke to the giant pinnacle through our tent window, reminding us where we were, and it instantly made the day better. After packing up our campsite we drove to the beginning of the park road and took a short hike on the Door Trail into the Badlands, where we could stare down into the crevices and crannies that had formed in the rocks. We drove back along the park road and stopped at the Visitor Center again, watching the film on the park’s history. We continued along the park road the same way we had gone the night before and were happy to get yet another perspective on the Badlands, but agreed that nothing could match the colors that the sunset yielded. We stopped at the Castle Trail, scrambling up the rock formations we had admired from below to the plateau. We hiked among the tall grasses, cacti, and rock formations before seeing some dark clouds in the distance, at which we quickly returned to our car.
We finished driving along the park road and decided to venture onto the Sage Creek Rim Road, a gravel road that takes visitors to another part of the park; however, we quickly realized that this particular gravel road and a small rental car didn’t mix, so we turned around. The short time we spent on the road was nice, and we would like to return at some point to it, but in a bigger, preferably 4-wheel drive vehicle. We exited the park and both agreed that the Badlands were one of our favorite National Parks. While it’s not as big as places like Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, there’s something a bit magical about the rock formations at the Badlands that captures you, especially since we were able to see such great views of them with so few people around during our evening drive. We highly recommend visiting the Badlands, and for a classic American road trip out west, visit it alongside nearby Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, and Devil’s Tower National Monument.
A Living Scrapbook 