Badlands National Park caught us by surprise. Most of South Dakota is rolling hills and prairie, and out of nowhere the Badlands show up in the middle with impressive geologic formations, fossils, and pinnacles.
We took a daytrip from Rapid City. Daytime temps were expected to be in the high 90s so we planned to mainly drive through the park. We drove to the far eastern side of the park to enter and then drove west back through. This seemed to be the smart way to do things as there was quite a bit of traffic coming the opposite direction but virtually none going our direction.
We did a few really short hikes on the eastern side of the park: Window and Door hike, and Cliff Shelf Trail before we got to the visitor center.
We spent time at the live fossil lab in the visitor center which was really really cool. After spending time there we went to the Fossil Exhibit Trail and looked at all the examples of fossils that were found in the park. And that concluded the amount of time spent outside of the air conditioned car as temps outside reached 98 degrees or so.
We stopped at several overlooks along the main Badlands Loop Road, and left the park to go through Wall. We had to make a stop at the infamous Wall Drug and get some ice cream.
We enjoyed our brief time in Badlands. We were blown away by the layers and colors. I think a spring or fall time visit when it isn’t so hot would be more pleasant so we could hike more, though.
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