Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park doesn’t get enough credit. If you’re like us, you may not really know what to expect. It’s not one of the more well known national parks for a lot of people, but it should be. This park is unlike anything we have ever seen. The landscape is just incredible and you can’t even believe you’re still on Earth. We did a bit of hiking, drove through the park, and took a bunch of pictures.

We followed our GPS down a long dirt road into the park. We saw zero people but did see several cows. There wasn’t a gate at this entrance so we had to round back to the actual front of the park to get our National Park Pass. It was a nice way to enter the park because it allowed us time to stop and take photos without interruption, but was a bit of a rough and dusty ride in our rental car. If your GPS tries to take you this way, make sure you still visit the front gate to get your park pass. It’s always good to be honest and they do have park rangers who drive around and check on those things.

We would recommend starting your visit at the Ben Reifel Visitor’s Center. If you have a national park passport book, you can find your Badlands stamp here. They also have souvenirs if you’re into that sort of thing. The visitor’s center closes at 4:00 PM and they mean 4:00 PM. They turned off the lights on us as we were checking out.

From here take the short drive to the Door, Window and Notch trailheads. There is a parking area here with restrooms.

The Notch Trail was the hardest hike we did at the Badlands, but it was still a fairly moderate hike (at 1.5 miles) save for two things: the ladder and the rain. There is a ladder on this trail and it makes for a difficult climb, but it is still manageable… if it isn’t raining. The trail guide plainly said that the route could become treacherous if it was raining and that was definitely true. It started pouring on us on the way back and we were unsure how long it would last, so we braved the slippery ladder in the rain. We did make it down with minimal injuries that could be healed by band aids and hand sanitizer, but it was a bit scary. It stopped raining almost as soon as we cleared the bottom of the ladder. Mother Nature certainly has a sense of humor.

This trail was fun though and led to an overlook where you could see way off into the distance. It took you through one of the valleys in the Badlands and gave you a variety of good views, so we very much recommend this trail… just not in the rain. They also recommend good hiking shoes for this trail, but we were able to do it fine in our Merrell walking sandals (these things are amazing). The only downside was how much mud was caked on our shoes that we then had to clean off later that night.

The Window Trail (.25 miles) and Door Trail (.75 miles) take you out onto the large land masses. Both trails are fairly easy and provide great opportunities for photos. These trails give you a chance to see the Badlands without the interruptions of the road and have enough wide open spaces that we were able to get a good many photos without other people in them.

You can also find one end of the Castle Trail in this area. This is a 5 mile (one way) trail that ends at the Fossil Exhibit Trail. We didn’t have time to do this one, so instead we drove to the next trail.

The Fossil Exhibit Trail (.25 miles) wasn’t so much a trail as a boardwalk. It is an easy walk that features fossil replicas and signs that tell you a bit of the history of the Badlands. The whole area used to be underwater and there was also a volcano at one time. The area is very fossil rich and this trail gave a glimpse of the sort of fossils that had been found there.

Take Badlands Loop Road towards the North entrance of the park. It is a nice drive that leads past so many rock formations of various colors. The striations really make you realize just how diverse the landscape has been over time. We stopped in the middle of a stretch of road where we could pull off and see pretty far in either direction. We took some classic “standing in the middle of the road” pics because why not? Courtesy of the rain, our photos had rainbows in them which made them extra cool. (Are you still cool if you have to tell people you’re cool?)

We recommend ending your day at Pinnacle Overlook. This is a popular spot around sunset and was probably the most crowded place we visited in the park, though it was still nothing compared to other parks we visited. This overlook gave us yet another glimpse at the Badlands from a different angle and, since it was at sunset, the colors of the landscape took on a nice warm glow.

Overall we very much enjoyed our visit to Badlands National Park and would highly recommend it.

Cost of Entry: $30 per vehicle (larger vehicles like vans and RVs may be more). Passes are good for 7 days. Consider purchasing a National Park Pass if you will be visiting multiple parks. You can get these for $80 and they are good for one year.

Where to Eat/Drink: There are no restaurants inside the park, though visitor’s centers may have snacks and drinks. Consider packing a lunch or plan to eat outside the park. Not too far from the North entrance you will find several restaurants and Wall Drug, a large drug store with gift shops and restaurants inside. Make sure to bring lots of water with you as it can get hot in the park due to lack of shade in many areas. We had a cooler in our trunk with extra water. (Tip- Use ice packs instead of ice to keep your drinks cold but your trunk dry.)

Where to Stay: We stayed in Rapid City, SD, just one hour from the park, at the Rockerville Lodge and Cabins.

Other Things to Note: This was the least crowded of every park we visited on our road trip. We visited in early June on a Tuesday afternoon. We got to the park around 3:00 PM and stayed until around 7:00 PM. We’re not sure how busy the park is in the morning/early afternoon, but late afternoon was a wonderful time. It wasn’t too hot by this point (also possibly due to impending rain) and we had no trouble with traffic at all.

For more information on Badlands National Park, including updated info on closures and COVID-19 protocols, visit the NPS site here.

Stay tuned for more blogs from our two week road trip through the Northwest. And if you haven’t read our 14-day itinerary, check it out here.