The Badlands

The Badlands National Park is located in beautiful South Dakota about an hour east of Rapid City. We spent 11 days in the area at the end of June to the start of July in 2022, setting up camp at Sleepy Hollow RV park in the well-known town of Wall. This was our first trip to the state and after spending a considerable amount of time in Wyoming, the bar was set high. Comparing beautiful US destinations is like comparing your kids. They’re all wonderful in their own way, albeit normally very different from one another. This was certainly the case with the Badlands, as it was so different from anyplace we have visited. It’s uniqueness and unworldly landscape makes you feel like you should trade in your hiking shoes for a space suit, as the landscape resembles something more like the lunar surface than the center of the United States.

Most of the park can be accessed from state route 240 (Badlands Loop Road) which is one large loop coming back to Interstate 90 on both ends. As you approach the park it’s initially somewhat underwhelming. You don’t see any tall mountain peaks or lakes and such. However, as you get into the park that all changes, as it seems you enter another world. It’s like a sandstone palace with red pin striped formations and orange mounds. Then you realize you are on an upper ledge and the other side drops off into a deep canyon where the formations seem like the go forever, like you’re seeing a reflection in a mirror. There are pull-offs along the way where you can soak in the beauty, or wander out into the wilderness. One of the unique things about this park is that it is open hiking, meaning you are free to go off the trails. However, be forewarned that this is a treacherous and very dangerous area. The sandstone is slippery and the drop-offs are very steep.

TIP: If you have time, drive the park during different time of the day, particularly early and late. The colors are more vibrant when the sun is lower in the horizon. You will enjoy the different experience the light provides during these times of the day.

There’s some great hiking in the park, but be prepared when the weather is warm because there is very little shade in the park. We did most of our hiking in the early morning and it was quite nice. These are some of the hikes we did that we can highly recommend:

• Notch Trail: If you’ve done any research on the Badlands National Park you’ve surely seen a picture of the famous rope ladder. This is where you find it. After a short hike you reach the ladder. It’s a bit intimidating but not too bad going up. I actually had a lot harder time going down, as the rungs seemed to be spaced oddly. As tempting as it might seem do NOT leave the ladder on the way down and try to descend by the edge. The sandstone is extremely slippery and you will provide an unwanted show for those below. Once you get to the top of the ladder, the hike goes along the edge of the canyon. You will find yourself climbing over large boulders as you make your way to the lookout at the far end. It’s not a long hike but very much worth it. At the bottom, try taking the trail a little bit further. It goes a little ways into the canyon and is very pretty.

• Door Trail: After a short boardwalk the trail opens up to a vast open area of rock formations, crevices and drop offs. Although there is a designated trail, you can hike all of this area where you truly feel like you have been transformed to another planet. We enjoyed it so much we hiked it twice.

• Window Trail: This is accessed from the same parking lot at the Notch and Door trails. It’s actually more of a short boardwalk than a trail. At the end is a beautiful overlook through the rocks (the window).

• Saddle Pass Trail: I’m not even sure why its called a trail. This is simply free climbing to the peak of a mountain. It’s a little challenging and a while lot of fun. Once you get to the top you can backtrack or take the Medicine Root Trail to the right or the Castle Trail to the left as I did. Since Shannon wasn’t into climbing the mountain, a quick Facetime call at the top directed my pickup to the end of the Castle trail so I didn’t have to backtrack.

One of the other ways to experience the park is through its amazing sunrises and sunsets. There are many options of viewing spots for both and the only thing you will struggle with is which way to look. Its a bit of sensory overload between the colors in the sky and the glow off of the mountains. Our journey to see the sunrise was a bit more challenging. I was hell bent on seeing it from a particular location. Well, in my haste I overshot the spot and ended up at the other end of the park. As I was scrambling to go back, the sun was coming up and I was a bit stressed that we woke up so early for nothing. Well, sometimes our misses turn out to be home runs. Suddenly a deer appeared on the side of the road with the most amazing background behind it, compliments the sun reflecting off the mountains. Then his buddy showed up and they both stood there nose to nose posing for us. It was an incredible moment of being at the wrong place at the right time. Even if you don’t go for the sunrise, you should visit the park in the morning to see the wildlife. We got up close with several bighorn sheep as well.

The spectacular scenery doesn’t end when the sun goes down, you just have to look a different direction – up. The stars in South Dakota are amazing and it doesn’t take long to get way from the lights to see them! You can see the Milky Way and more stars than you can imagine. We drove up to a famous boondocking location just outside the west entrance to the park to do some star gazing. The location is referred to as “Dispersed Camping at Badlands National Park” or “The Wall at Badlands National Park.” We opted to just take the jeep up there rather than boondock with the RV. Although there are many big rigs up there, the dirt road is pretty treacherous. But the view! You are literally on the edge of the canyon wall out in the middle of darkness.

There is also a southern area of the park which is much more remote and therefore less traveled. We didn’t visit much of this part but we did drive the Sheep Mountain Road to Sheep Mountain Overlook. This is a gravel road that goes through a canyon to an awesome overlook. Any vehicle can make it to this point but beyond the marked overlook the road turns into a very rugged trail, where you will need a high clearance vehicle… so we went Jeeping. This was a fun off-road drive with beautiful overlooks along the whole way. We definitely experienced the Badlands in a way most don’t.

While your in the Badland area, there are three other attractions you should seriously consider, The first of which is Wall Drug Store. Yes, it’s a hokey tourist trap, but hey, you past those 100 or so signs so you might as well stop. What’s especially cool about this is the history. It started as a small drug store that offered travelers free water and nickel coffee, which the still offer today, but has expanded into somewhat of a city in it’s own.

After you check Wall Drug Store off your list, go to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, located near the east entrance of the Badlands park of of Interstate 90. This was the actual location where 1,000 armed nuclear missiles were located during the cold war. At anytime one, or more of the missiles could have been launched and reached the Soviet Union in 30 minutes. If you plan in advance (which we did not do) you can visit the actual Delta 01 launch control facility and the Delta 09 missile silo with an un-armed missile. Even if you’re not lucky enough to see these two spots, the visitor center is well worth the trip. It’s quite sobering of just how close we were to a nuclear war and how quick the Soviets surpassed our nuclear warhead capacity. Also in the visitor center you can get a virtual tour and presentation of the Delta 01 and Delta 09 facilities. We were lucky enough to have one of the former commanders who staffed the Delta 01 facility for a few years host our virtual tour. Getting his first hand perspective made this very real.

The third side trip, a little further east on Interstate 90, is 1880 Town. This is an amazing collection of structures from 1880 to 1920 set up in a way where you feel like you have stepped back in time. There is also some great history and artifacts from Dances with Wolves which was filmed in its entirety in this area of South Dakota.

After eleven days in the Badlands its off to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Safe travels and see you down the road a piece.

Check out all of our pics from the Badlands.