Badlands of South Dakota

After visiting with three sets of friends, staying in state parks, a friend’s barn, county parks, a golf course, and KOA, we are finally beginning our trip west to visit some National Parks. We traveled from Minnesota to Sioux Falls, SD for the first night and completed our journey to the Badlands the following day. The roads in SD have actually been quite smooth (I 90) with some road work going on but traffic was never stopped as a result. When we turned off I90 to head to our KOA, we actually got the chance to drive through the National Park as the campground was on the other side of the park. This gave us our first look at the park and the size of the landscape was amazing. Here are a few of our first pictures of the park. (click on them to scroll and see larger)

The KOA is actually quite nice. It’s located in the town of Interior (population of 94) and it’s four miles to get to the entrance of the park. We have a nice spot in the back and we have lots of shade which is good as it was 106 degrees today!!

Badlands KOA, SD

The Badlands Park is a highly underrated park filled with buttes, spires and pinnacles around every corner. The hiking trails are short but breathtaking as you walk through the prairies, climb the cliffs and even climb a ladder to the top of one of the jagged rocks! We hiked the Door, Window, and Notch Trails…easy hikes for one morning before the sun became too hot. The Door and Windows had easy marks to follow and were very short. The Notch Trail had a high ladder to climb to get to the notches between the rocks at the top. I waited for a bit before trying to decide if it was too hard but finally caved into pressure and climbed to the top and around the cliffs to a beautiful overlook. Climbing down the ladder was a bit tricker but I’m glad I did the trail. The views were very rewarding.

Look closely to see the ladder.

Greg at the top waiting “patiently” for me to decide if I could come up.

As we drove the Loop Road, I was constantly taking pictures from of the car or stopping to walk around for more. Each of the overpasses has their own special view. Enjoy some of the views. Click on the photos to scroll through and see them full screen.

Beginning of Notch Trail

Yellow Mounds

Beginning of Notch Trail

Swallows built nests everywhere with the dirt.

We took a drive to Sheep Mountain Table which is a dirt road that takes you 5 miles to the top of the table and and then stops at an overlook. The views were breathtaking but the road was dirt and was very bumpy. Small price to pay for incredible views.

Badlands National Park is most famous for its spectacular rock formations, with vivid colored bands that can be traced from pinnacle to pinnacle. The rocks were laid down by oozing mud, river floods, volcanic ash, and wind-blown dust for more than 70 million years. The major feature of the Badlands is the fifty-mile-long wall, which divides the park into an upper and lower prairie.