Traveling Through Badlands National Park

Big Badlands Overlook

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I live in Minnesota but am in love with the Southwest. As such, I frequently find myself squished into our minivan driving west on I-90 on a family road trip.  About 4 hours west of Sioux Falls is exit 131 for SD-240 – Badlands Scenic Drive.  This drive is a frequent flash point for my husband and I during the planning phase of our road trips. My husband likes to point out that we’ve driven through this park countless time - we’ve done this park why do we need to go there again. Shouldn’t we spend our time going to see something new? But I struggle when I see this turnoff and I can’t help but pull the car off of the Interstate. The Badlands are unreal with their colors and shapes. If you get out of the car and walk for a bit into the rocks, touch the rock and you’ll notice it crumbles into your hand. It seems magical this place exists at all. And the wildlife is plentiful along this drive. Even if you just plan to drive through without stopping, you will have fun watching the prairie dogs, mountain sheep, deer, antelope, and bison.

There is more than enough to fill a day in Badlands National Park, but we are typically on our way someplace else, so we try to keep it around 3 or so hours. Regardless of the amount of time you have to stop, I would recommend driving through this park. It’s the perfect place to get out of the car and at least stretch your legs. If you are traveling with kids, there are lots of short hiking trails, and they will have a great time watching for wildlife. As we have been through the park multiple times, we’ve had opportunities to go on most of the hikes and explore several areas of the park. Below is a summary of stops, hiking trails and viewpoints along the drive to help you plan your trip.

Prairie Homestead

Prairie Dog at the Prairie Homestead

After taking exit 131, just before arriving at the Badlands National Park Northeast Entrance, you will come past a sign for the Prairie Homestead.  There is a visitor center which is only open in the summer months, but you can still wander around if you happen to visit when the center is closed.  There is a prairie dog town that you can walk past and get as close to the creatures as you’d like (or as close as they will let you).  There is a home of a settler built into the side of a hill. This home makes me grateful for being born in the 1980s. I’ve been blessed with hot showers, heated homes, and electric stoves my whole life.  This is a quick stop without much walking required, and it is free.

Prairie Homestead

Big Badlands Overlook

Big Badlands Overlook

If this is your first time in the park, you have to stop at the first outlook.  You’ll immediately understand why I can’t continue down I-90 and skip this park.  You can walk along the peaks and explore beyond the viewpoint. There are no formal trailheads here.

Window and Door Trails

Window Trail

The first trailhead parking lot you come to has three different trails: Window, Door, and Notch.  The trails are marked as you start but pay attention to make sure you are on the one you intended.  In order from entering the parking lot the trailheads are Window, then Door, then Notch.  All three are out and back trails.

Both Door and Window start on board walk trails. Window is a 0.3 mile trail entirely on a board walk. The Door Trail is 1 mile round trip, starts on the board walk and then goes into a well worn trail. The elevation gain is minimal. This is a fun trail for younger children as it’s an easy and short walk, but you can go off trail and hide in the holes and climb on the rocks.

Notch Trail

Notch Trail Ladder

Notch Trail shares the same parking lot as Window and Door trails, but this trail is a little more difficult as it includes a climb up 50 rung ladder to help you and over the cliff about .3 miles into the 1.2 mile round trip hike.  This iconic ladder is fun to climb up but a bit more stressful to climb down. If you have older kids, this is the hike in the Badlands that I would suggest.

My youngest was 6 when he did this hike.  The way up the ladder and out to the viewpoint was a blast. The way down the ladder, I went in front of him and helped him make sure his foot reached each rung on his way down. 

Notch Trail

At the end of the 0.6-mile hike, there is an overlook onto the valley.  You’ll see the Ben Reifel Visitor Nature Center below you and a trail with steps and platforms.  You won’t be able to get to that trail from this lookout.  You’re looking at the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail.  The Cliff Shelf Nature Trail shares a parking lot with the visitor center. 

Viewpoint from Notch Trail - The boardwalk trail you see is the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail. To get there, you will need to go back to your car and drive to the Visitor Center parking lot.

If you plan on going on Notch Trail, give yourself an extra half hour than what you would normally estimate based on the milage.  Although this is a relatively easy and quick hike, except for the ladder, you will likely need to wait in a hiker que as this ladder is both used for going up and back down the same trail.

If you zoom in on this picture, you will see the ladder to gauge how steep it is. Also note the queue of hikers at the top as this is both the way up and the way down.

Visitor Center

There are 4 reasons to stop in the Visitor Center. 1) Request a Junior Ranger activity book for your children. The hard thing about this Junior Ranger badge is that in order to complete the entire book you need to drive through the park and there is only one visitor center that you are not going to drive back to. I recommend just mailing this book in when it is complete. The park will mail the book back as well as the Junior Ranger badge. 2) There is a short movie to watch to understand how the Badlands were formed. If you are interested in watching the movie, let a Ranger know and they will start the movie for you. 3) There are some exhibits to walk through and explore which teach you about the wildlife in the park. 4) The visitor center parking lot is also a trailhead for the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail.

Cliff Shelf Nature Trail

We hiked this back in 2012 when I was 20 weeks pregnant with my youngest son. Couldn’t find any pictures of this trail without people in it. This picture though gives you an idea of the steps, the boardwalks, and the viewpoints. It’s a very pretty trail that is quick to hike and relatively easy.

This trail shares a parking lot with the visitor center.  The roundtrip trail is 0.5 miles and climbs up 200 feet in elevation as you scale up steps to the overlook.  This trail is primarily over manmade surfaces, but the view is very pretty.

Saddlepass

Saddlepass

The first parking lot after the visitor center is for Saddlepass.  Saddlepass connects with the Castle Trail, a 10 mile trail  We have not hiked this entire trail, but have hiked up to the top of Sadddlepass to explore the viewpoint.

Fossil Exhibit Trail

Shortly after Saddlepass, you will come to a parking lot of the Fossil Exhibit Trail.  Generally I think the flat loop nature hikes are on the boring end of hikes for kids, but this one is self-guided and the fossils are really cool to look at.  This is a really quick stop and I would recommend this one if you have younger kids. 

If you stopped here and have older kids, if you leave your car in the parking lot and cross the street, you can hike for a ways up the Castle Trail.  Castle Trail is 10 miles.  The trouble with this trail is that it can be a through hike, but you have to have another car waiting for you.  If not, then you’ll have to hike back.  For a park that I like to spend some time in but usually am still trying to get to another location within the same day, I haven’t hiked the entire distance, nor will I likely in the future.

White River Overlook

White River Overlook

Another pretty overlook.  I’d recommend stopping at a few of the overlooks, but not all of them.  Pictures are below so you can plan your trip to pick your favorite places to stop ahead of time.

Panorama Point Overlook

Panorama Point Overlook

Burns Basin Overlook

Another Prairie Dog Town

Stay in your car but slow down.  On the north side of the road you will see a prairie dog town.  As you travel further west down the road you will see another prairie dog town on the south side of the road.

Dillon Point Overlook

About here in the road when you look at the rocks you will see a yellow color that is included.  The colors show up better on a sunny day, but of course we don’t get to pick the weather of the day we travel through.

Near Ancient Hunters Overlook

Badlands Mountain Sheep

Slow down here and get ready to pull over to the side of the road.  This is where the mountain sheep frequently are.  Look up on the cliffs on the south side.  If you don’t see them, hang on, continue on the road.  It will curve around the rocks and now look up the north side.  Every time we’ve driven through the park, we’ve seen them in one of these locations.

Baby Mountain Sheep near Ancient Hunters Overlook

If you haven’t yet seen a buffalo or antelope, keep your eyes open at the park exit, as we commonly see them here.

Bison near the Pinnacles Entrance to the Badlands

Wall Drug

If you’ve been traveling west on I-90, you’ve no doubt noticed the thousand signs for Wall Drug.  This can be fun for your kids to stop if you have a couple extra minutes.  It’s about a 3-minute drive from the Badlands exit.  As you drive down South Blvd, turn on Main Street. The main stores are between 5th and 6th avenue.  When you walk in, there will be shops on both sides of you.  Keep walking all the way to the back towards the Wall Drug Backyard.  Outside there’s a jack-a-lope, mini-Rushmore sign for pictures, and if you keep walking into the next building, you will find the animated T-Rex.  This is a very life-like T-Rex that roars every 12 minutes.  My boys think this guy is pretty cool now, but mind you the last time we were here my youngest (who was 4) started screaming and it took several minutes to calm him down and I don’t think we ever convinced him it wasn’t real.  So use your best judgement.  Note that the Backyard is only open in the summer months. 

Wall Drug T-Rex in the Backyard

One other note on traveling through Wall Drug with kids – there are gift shops everywhere.  We are clear with our boys before we get out what we are doing here (getting one thing or not getting anything) to avoid spending too much time wondering through the shops if we still have some driving to do before the day is over. 

The free water and 5 cent water, if you are interested, is at the Wall Drug Cafe.

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