How to Visit the South Dakota Badlands

Badlands National Park, about 80 miles east of Rapid City, South Dakota, is 244,000 acres of eroding rock formations among natural mixed-grass prairie grassland. Buffalo, prairie dogs, coyotes, bobcats, bighorn sheep, foxes, rattlesnakes and even some black-footed ferrets, once thought to be extinct, all take up residence in the Badlands.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Camera
• Drinking water

1. Arrive early in the morning--or stay for sunset--to take pictures of the land with the best lighting. When the sun gets high in the sky, the light gets more harsh (especially without cloud cover) and the colors on the Badlands rock formations may look somewhat washed out, though they are still well worth seeing. Angled morning light will cast ever-changing shadows, and a wider variety of colors in the sky and in the rocks will be apparent.

2. Drive the loop road. Plan to spend an hour or two to drive around and see the land forms up close, take photos and hike around on marked trails. In the spring after the snow melts, prairie wildflowers pop up.

3. 
    
   Hike the trails in the Badlands National Park

   Learn and explore. The Ben Reifel Visitor Center, in addition to exhibits and an Badlands documentary, has information on the daily Junior Ranger programs available for kids, such as a nature hike or fossil examination. The Ben Reifel Visitor Center is open year-round. The White River Visitor Center, in the Stronghold Unit of the park on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, is open seasonally and has exhibits about the American Indians' culture and their history in the Badlands.

4. 
    
   Visit the Badlands National Park at night for the astronomy program.

   Take in the stars at night from June through August. With little light pollution you will be able to see the Milky Way and learn constellations you may never have seen before. A park ranger will present a 40-minute astronomy program in the Badlands Cedar Pass amphitheater, and after a brief intermission, visitors may stay and view the constellations and ask questions of the ranger as long as they wish. Telescopes may also be available.

Tips & Warnings

• Expect to need a hat, sunscreen and your own drinking water. The South Dakota Badlands receive only 16 inches of rain per year.
• Do not go to see the bison or other wildlife up close. The Badlands Visitor Guide (see Resources) advises to keep 100 yards away from wildlife: "Any time an animal reacts to your presence means you are too close." Removing fossils, flowers or rocks from a National Park is punishable with a fine and or jail time. If you see an interesting fossil, photograph it, note where you saw it and let a ranger know about it. Do not feed the wildlife.

Resources

• Badlands National Park website
• Badlands Visitor Guide (PDF doc)