Choose wisely. Connect locally.Add your business Badlands National Park covers about 244,000 acres of eroded buttes, pinnacles, spires and mixed-grass prairie in southwestern South Dakota. The bands of rust, cream, gray and gold that streak the formations are layers of ancient sediment and volcanic ash, now wearing away at a startling rate.
Door Trail and Window Trail
Notch Trail
Ben Reifel Visitor Center
Fossil Exhibit Trail
+5 more places
This guide covers the best places to visit in the park, from the scenic Badlands Loop Road and its short trails to the wildlife of the Sage Creek area and the Cold War history just outside the boundary.
The Badlands look like nowhere else in the United States. Driving across the prairie, you suddenly reach the edge of the Badlands Wall, a long escarpment where the grassland gives way to a vast maze of ridges and canyons.
The park is also unusually open to exploration. Beyond the marked trails, Badlands allows off-trail hiking across much of its landscape, so you can wander among the formations at your own pace.
The eastern end of the Badlands Loop Road, near the Northeast Entrance and Cedar Pass, holds most of the park's short trails. Arrive early in summer to find parking and avoid midday heat.
Both trails start from the same parking area. The Door Trail begins with an accessible boardwalk through a break in the Badlands Wall, then continues on a route marked by numbered posts across a rugged landscape of eroded mounds.
The Door Trail passes through a break in the Badlands Wall into a maze of eroded formations. Photo: Eekim, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
The Notch Trail is the park's most exciting short hike.
The Notch Trail includes a steep ladder climb up a cliff face before reaching a view over the White River Valley. Photo: Chris Light, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The park's main visitor center, at Cedar Pass, has exhibits on geology, fossils, wildlife and Lakota culture, a park film and rangers who can advise on trail conditions.
The Ben Reifel Visitor Center at Cedar Pass is the park's main visitor center. Photo: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Just west of the visitor center, this short boardwalk and stair trail climbs through a juniper-shaded slump block where the wall has slid downhill. It is a good place to look for birds and occasionally bighorn sheep.
The Badlands Loop Road, Highway 240, runs through the North Unit between Interstate 90 exits at Cactus Flat and Wall. It is lined with overlooks, and many visitors spend most of their day driving it slowly.
This fully accessible boardwalk loop features fossil replicas and exhibits explaining the creatures that lived here when the region was a warm, wet floodplain.
The Fossil Exhibit Trail is an accessible boardwalk with replicas of fossils found in the park. Photo: w_lemay, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
At Yellow Mounds, rounded hills glow in shades of yellow, red and purple.
Yellow Mounds Overlook shows ancient soil layers stained yellow, red and purple. Photo: w_lemay, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Near the northwest end of the road, Pinnacles Overlook looks across a broad basin of jagged peaks and is one of the most popular sunset spots in the park. Bighorn sheep are often seen grazing on nearby slopes.
Pinnacles Overlook, near the northwest entrance, looks across a wide basin of eroded peaks. Photo: Martin Kraft, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
West of the Pinnacles Entrance, the gravel Sage Creek Rim Road runs along the edge of the Badlands Wilderness. Along the way you will pass Roberts Prairie Dog Town, where hundreds of black-tailed prairie dogs pop up from their burrows and call warnings to each other.
Roberts Prairie Dog Town along Sage Creek Rim Road is home to a large colony of black-tailed prairie dogs. Photo: Wing-Chi Poon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5
Bison were reintroduced to Badlands in the 1960s, and today they roam the western part of the park, often near Sage Creek Rim Road and the primitive Sage Creek Campground. They are massive, fast and unpredictable.
Bison roam the Sage Creek Wilderness area in the western part of the park. Photo: Chris M Morris, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Just north of the park along Interstate 90, this site tells the story of the Cold War missile fields that once covered western South Dakota.
The Delta-09 silo near Badlands National Park displays an unarmed Minuteman II missile beneath a glass viewing enclosure. Photo: Eekim, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
The small town of Wall, at the park's northwest edge, is the main gateway community. It is best known for Wall Drug, a sprawling roadside store that grew famous by offering free ice water to travelers during the Depression and promoting itself on billboards for hundreds of miles.
Food choices inside the park are limited, so plan ahead.
Beyond the park, look for chislic, cubes of grilled or fried meat on skewers that South Dakota has adopted as a state specialty, and kuchen, a custard-filled German pastry that is the official state dessert.
Popular dishes to try in Badlands National Park
Inside the park, the Cedar Pass area has cabins and a developed campground, ideal for sunrise and stargazing.
Wall suits most visitors, with motels, campgrounds and restaurants close to the Pinnacles Entrance.
Rapid City suits travelers combining the Badlands with Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park and the Black Hills, though it means a longer morning drive.
Where to stay in Badlands National Park
Summer is the busiest season.
Late spring and early autumn offer the best balance of mild weather, fewer crowds and good wildlife viewing; the prairie is green in early summer and golden in September.
Badlands National Park lies just south of Interstate 90.
A car is essential, as there is no public transit in the park. No timed entry or reservations are required to enter, but an entrance fee applies; check the official website for current fees and conditions.
Watch sunrise at Big Badlands Overlook or Panorama Point, then hike the Notch, Door and Window trails before the heat builds.
Drive Sage Creek Rim Road early to look for bison, bighorn sheep and the prairie dogs at Roberts Prairie Dog Town. In the afternoon, visit Wall and the Minuteman Missile sites.
Need a meal, fuel or supplies before heading into the park?
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