South Dakota: Badlands National Park

About the Badlands

The Landscape That Time Sculpted

Rising from the plains of south-western South Dakota, Badlands National Park is a place of extraordinary geological theatre. Over millions of years, wind and water have carved the region’s soft sedimentary rock into an astonishing succession of pinnacles, ridges, and gullies, creating a terrain that shifts dramatically in colour and form as the light changes throughout the day. The formations span shades of ochre, lavender, and deep charcoal, layered in bands that tell a story stretching back 75 million years. At nearly 380 square kilometres, the park encompasses not only these iconic badland formations but also one of the largest intact mixed-grass prairies remaining in North America, a rolling expanse of native grasses that provides a striking counterpoint to the jagged geology. Sunrise and sunset transform the entire landscape into something resembling an alien world, making the Badlands a favourite destination for photographers, geologists, and anyone drawn to the raw power of nature’s slow artistry.

A Living Museum of Prehistoric Life

Beneath the surface of the Badlands lies one of the world’s most significant fossil records. The park’s eroding walls continually expose the remains of ancient creatures — three-toed horses, sabre-toothed cats, giant tortoises, and oreodonts among them — making it a site of immense palaeontological importance. The Fossil Exhibit Trail offers visitors an accessible introduction to these discoveries, with displays of replica specimens set directly into the landscape. The Ben Reifel Visitor Centre provides deeper context through exhibits that chart the region’s deep natural and human history, including the long presence of the Lakota Sioux people, for whom this land holds profound cultural significance. The park collaborates with the Oglala Lakota Nation on the Stronghold Unit, a less-visited but deeply meaningful area that expands the park’s scope and adds important cultural dimension to the visitor experience.

Wildlife, Trails, and the Night Sky

Beyond its geological and palaeontological credentials, Badlands National Park is a thriving wildlife sanctuary. Bison roam the prairie in free-ranging herds, bighorn sheep navigate the rocky terrain with effortless agility, and the park plays a central role in the recovery of the black-footed ferret — one of North America’s most endangered mammals. Prairie dogs populate extensive colonies that in turn support the broader ecosystem. For those on foot, the park offers trails ranging from the short but rewarding Door and Window loops to the more challenging Notch Trail, which culminates in sweeping views across the White River Valley. Camping at Cedar Pass or Sage Creek brings the additional reward of some of the darkest skies in the United States, with Badlands holding International Dark Sky Park designation. Stargazing here is genuinely spectacular, with the Milky Way visible to the naked eye on clear evenings throughout much of the year.

What to see in Badlands National Park?

1. Drive the Badlands National Park Loop

The best way to see the Badlands, particularly if time isn’t entirely on your side, was to drive the loop road — and that’s exactly what we did. Now, on paper, thirty-odd miles doesn’t sound like much. You’re probably thinking what we were thinking: an hour, maybe a bit more, job done, back in time for lunch. Not quite.

The Badlands Loop Road stretches for just over thirty miles through some of the most bizarre and otherworldly landscape either of us had ever clapped eyes on. This is a place that looks less like South Dakota and more like someone accidentally left Mars in the wrong solar system. The road itself has been there in various forms since the 1930s, when the National Park Service — established back in 1916 under Woodrow Wilson, though the Badlands didn’t get full National Park status until 1978 — began developing it for visitors who wanted to experience the landscape without actually having to trudge through it on foot like some sort of Victorian explorer.

And trudging, frankly, would have been a terrible idea. We made stops. Lots of them. Every few minutes, one of us was saying “pull over” like an overexcited labrador spotting a squirrel. What was supposed to take an hour ended up taking several, which, if we’re being honest, was absolutely the right call. You simply cannot rush this place. It won’t let you.

2. Yellow Mounds Overlook

One of the stops we made along the loop road was the Yellow Mounds Overlook, and it was well worth pulling over for — even by the standards of a drive that had already made us pull over approximately every five minutes like tourists who’d never seen a rock before.

The Yellow Mounds are, as the name rather helpfully suggests, yellow. A deep, almost ochre yellow, the kind of colour you’d expect to find on a paint chart with a name like “Tuscan Sunset” or something equally ridiculous. But the story behind that colour is where things get genuinely interesting, and considerably older than anything either of us had any right to comprehend standing there in a car park in South Dakota.

Cast your mind back, if you will, sixty-seven million years. We’re talking Late Cretaceous period. Dinosaurs were still very much a going concern. The area that would eventually become the Badlands was sitting under a vast inland sea — the Western Interior Seaway, since you ask — which stretched from what is now the Gulf of Mexico all the way up through the middle of North America to the Arctic. When that sea gradually retreated and drained away, it left behind thick deposits of dark ocean mud on the exposed seabed.

Then the weather got to work. Over millions of years, that black mud was battered by sun, wind and rain, oxidising and transforming slowly into the striking yellow and orange tones we were now gawping at from the overlook. Geology, it turns out, is just weather given enough time. Who knew.

3. Ben Reifel Visitor Centre

Like practically every National Park we’ve visited, our first port of call was the visitor centre — and if you know us at all by now, you’ll know this is pretty much an iron rule. We’re not the types to go blundering into a landscape without at least a vague idea of what we’re looking at.

The Ben Reifel Visitor Centre, named after the late Rosebud Sioux tribal member and US Congressman who championed the Badlands for decades before his death in 1990, had recently been given a thorough refurbishment, and it showed. It was clean, well laid out, and mercifully air-conditioned — which, in the baking South Dakota summer heat, felt like nothing short of a miracle.

The exhibition area was genuinely excellent. We learned a great deal about the geology of the Badlands — a landscape that’s been eroding at a frankly alarming rate for around 500,000 years, worn down by wind and rain into those extraordinary jagged spires and ridges. What surprised us both, though, was just how much actually lives out here. The Badlands supports a remarkable variety of plants and wildlife — bison, bighorn sheep, black-footed ferrets, prairie dogs, and more wildflowers than you’d ever expect in a place that looks, at first glance, like the surface of the moon.

If you do nothing else when you’re there — and we mean nothing else — sit down and watch the short film about the Park. It’s well worth twenty minutes of your time, and sets everything up beautifully for what you’re about to see outside.

4. The Notch Trail

We also did the Notch Trail, and if you’re thinking of doing the same, here’s what you need to know before you lace up your boots.

The trail itself is one and a half miles long and is rated as moderately strenuous — which, in American National Park language, means it’s not going to kill you, but it will make you work for it. Two things to flag straight away: if you have a fear of heights, this one probably isn’t for you. And if you’re travelling with children who have a tendency to ignore instructions — you know the type — perhaps give this one a miss as well. We’re not being dramatic. It genuinely matters here. Oh, and if it’s rained recently, things can get a bit slippery, so do check the forecast before setting off rather than just hoping for the best, which is, admittedly, our usual approach.

The hike starts pleasantly enough. The first section is a flat, easy walk through a canyon, the kind of thing that lulls you into a false sense of security and has you thinking this is all perfectly manageable. The canyon walls rise up around you in that extraordinary layered fashion the Badlands does so well — millions of years of sediment laid down during the late Cretaceous and Eocene periods, when this entire region was covered by a vast inland sea and later a subtropical forest. Hard to picture when you’re standing in what looks like the surface of the moon, but there you are.

About halfway along, the easy part ends. Quite abruptly, as it turns out. You arrive at a wooden ladder fixed into the rock face, and up you go. There will almost certainly be a queue — both going up and coming down — because this is a single-file situation with no overtaking lane. The done thing is to communicate with whoever is at the top, take turns sensibly, and not be that person who decides the normal rules don’t apply to them. We’ve all met that person. Don’t be them.

One thing worth mentioning: this is one of those rare occasions where going up is considerably easier than coming down. Something about the angle and the footing. Coming down, you’ll be very aware of both gravity and your own mortality in a way that feels quite clarifying.

Once you’re up on the ridge, the trail runs for the remainder of the hike along a path roughly six feet wide. That sounds reasonable until you notice the steep drop-offs on one side, at which point six feet starts to feel rather more modest than it did a moment ago. Keep your wits about you and stay on the path. This is not the moment to be distracted by your phone.

At the end of it all, you reach the Notch itself — a dramatic gap in the canyon walls that frames a sweeping view across the White River Valley below. The White River, for what it’s worth, has been carving through this landscape for thousands of years, and the valley it’s created is vast, pale and genuinely breathtaking. It was, we both agreed, absolutely worth the ladder.

5. Cliff Shelf Trail

Just up the hill from the Ben Reifel Visitor Centre — which, incidentally, is well worth a stop in itself — sits the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail, and we were rather glad we didn’t skip it in our eagerness to press on.

The trail is just over half a mile long. Half a mile. We’ve walked further than that looking for a decent cup of coffee. And it’s easy going too, which at our age is something we’ve stopped being embarrassed about appreciating.

But here’s the thing — short and easy absolutely does not mean dull. Not even slightly. The Cliff Shelf itself is a fascinating geological oddity, a rare example of what happens when a massive chunk of rock slides and slumps away from the main ridge and creates a small, sheltered plateau. This kind of landslip feature is unusual in the Badlands, where erosion typically just eats everything away at a rate of about an inch a year — which sounds slow until you realise these formations, some dating back thirty to thirty-four million years to the Eocene and Oligocene epochs, are effectively on a geological countdown clock.

From the trail, the views were frankly ridiculous. To one side, a jagged, spiky ridge of badlands rock formations juts up like broken teeth against the sky. To the other, the vast mixed-grass prairie rolled away to the south in every direction, seemingly without end. It was the kind of view that makes you stop talking mid-sentence, which, for us, is really saying something.

6. Fossil Exhibit Trail

If the Cliff Shelf Trail made us feel small, the Fossil Exhibit Trail made us feel positively insignificant — and we mean that in the best possible way.

This one is another short, easy affair, just under a mile long, which again suited us perfectly. The trail is fully paved and even has boardwalks in places, which tells you something about how seriously the National Park Service takes getting people out here to see it. And rightly so, because what’s on display along this trail is, when you stop and actually think about it, absolutely staggering.

The Badlands, you see, isn’t just a pretty landscape. It’s one of the richest fossil beds in the entire world. The rock layers here — laid down during the Eocene and Oligocene epochs, roughly twenty-three to thirty-seven million years ago — contain the preserved remains of creatures that would look thoroughly at home in a science fiction film. We’re talking about ancient three-toed horses, enormous pig-like creatures called entelodonts that were essentially the bad-tempered thugs of the Oligocene, sabre-toothed cats, and a bizarre rhinoceros-like animal called a titanothere, which was the size of an elephant and had what can only be described as a deeply unfortunate face.

Along the trail, the National Park Service has installed a series of covered exhibits, each housing casts of actual fossils found right here in this landscape. It’s a clever bit of interpretation — you’re standing in the place where these things were dug out of the ground, looking at what they actually looked like, and trying to wrap your head around the fact that this flat, baking, windswept prairie was once a lush, subtropical floodplain teeming with life. South Dakota in the Oligocene epoch, it turns out, was basically nothing like South Dakota today. Funny how thirty million years changes a place.

The serious fossil hunting in the Badlands began in earnest in the 1840s and 1850s, when pioneering palaeontologists started making expeditions out here and coming back with bones that caused considerable excitement back east. By the early twentieth century, the area was already recognised as scientifically extraordinary, which was a significant factor in its designation as a National Monument in 1939, and eventually a full National Park in 1978.

We shuffled along at a leisurely pace, stopping at every single exhibit like the enthusiastic amateurs we absolutely are, reading every panel, peering at every cast. Nobody rushed us. Nobody needed to. This was one of those rare spots where the more attention you paid, the more rewarding it became — and we left feeling both thoroughly educated and, if we’re honest, ever so slightly humbled by the sheer scale of deep time on display.

7. Door & Window Trails

Both trails sit close together in the north section of the park, just off the loop road, and between them they don’t add up to much more than three quarters of a mile of walking. So again, nobody was going to be troubling their joints unduly. What they lack in length, however, they more than make up for in sheer visual drama.

The Door Trail takes its name from a natural gap — quite literally a doorway — cut through a jagged wall of badlands rock. Walking through it felt rather like being granted permission to enter somewhere you probably shouldn’t. On one side, the car park and the relatively normal world. On the other, a vast and silent basin of eroded spires, gullies and ridges stretching away into the distance like something dreamed up by a particularly imaginative film set designer who’d been told to make Mars look more dramatic. The trail here is boardwalked for the first part, then becomes an open route marked only by wooden posts, which is the park’s polite way of saying “you’re on your own now, try not to do anything silly.”

The Window Trail, a short distance away, leads to exactly what the name suggests — a natural opening framed by rock, like a rough-hewn picture frame through which the layered badlands landscape beyond is perfectly, almost absurdly, composed. It looked like a photograph before we’d even taken one.

Both trails date back in their developed form to the mid twentieth century, part of the broader effort to make the park accessible after its National Monument designation in 1939 under Franklin Roosevelt, a full four decades before it was upgraded to National Park status in 1978. Somebody clearly had the good sense early on to point people toward the best bits and say “look through there.”

8. Saddle Pass Trail

The Saddle Pass Trail is short. Brutally short, in fact, at less than a quarter of a mile. What the distance lacks in length, however, it makes up for with almost comical enthusiasm in the vertical department. The trail climbs steeply — and we mean steeply — straight up through the badlands wall, a near-vertical scramble up eroded clay and rock that had us questioning several of our recent life choices before we’d even reached the halfway point.

The geology underfoot here is the same ancient stuff you find throughout the Badlands — layer upon layer of sedimentary rock laid down over millions of years when this part of South Dakota was a vast subtropical flood plain, teeming with prehistoric creatures that would have made even the most enthusiastic natural history documentary presenter slightly nervous. Entelodonts, ancient three-toed horses, and enormous land tortoises all once wandered this landscape, which is a genuinely extraordinary thing to contemplate whilst clinging to a muddy slope wondering if your knees are going to hold out.

The reward at the top, though, was absolutely worth every undignified moment of the climb. The views across the Badlands Wall and out over the vast mixed-grass prairie were spectacular — the kind of panorama that makes you feel simultaneously very small and very lucky. On a clear day, which it was, the landscape stretched away in every direction in that enormous, unhurried American way that simply doesn’t exist anywhere in Europe.

The trail connects at the top with both the Castle Trail and the Medicine Root Trail, which between them cover considerably more ground for anyone feeling more ambitious than we were. We had a look, nodded approvingly, and headed back down — which, if anything, was even more precarious than going up.

10. Medicine Root / Castle Loop

If the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail was a gentle warm-up, the Medicine Root/Castle Trail Loop was a somewhat more serious proposition — though we use the word “serious” in the most relative of terms. This is still the Badlands, not the Himalayas.

The loop runs to around four miles in total, winding through some of the most remote and genuinely striking terrain the park has to offer. And unlike the loop road, where you’re experiencing everything through a windscreen like a nature documentary on a very slow television, out here you were actually in it. Properly in it. The silence alone was worth the effort — a deep, almost unsettling quiet broken only by the wind and the occasional rustle of something in the grass that we chose not to investigate too closely.

The Medicine Root Trail portion follows the edge of the prairie, cutting through a landscape that has barely changed since the Lakota Sioux moved through this region for centuries before European settlers arrived and, in their characteristically enthusiastic fashion, proceeded to complicate everything. The Lakota knew this area intimately, using the native plants — including the prairie turnip, known in Lakota as the tinpsila — as a vital food source. Medicine Root Creek, from which the trail takes its name, runs through this section of the park and gave the surrounding area its name long before anyone thought to build a car park nearby.

The Castle Trail section then takes over and heads toward the formations, and this is where things get properly dramatic. The castellated rock spires that give the trail its name rise up from the prairie floor like the ruins of some enormous medieval fortress that nobody ever got around to finishing. These formations, carved from layers of volcanic ash, sandstone and ancient river sediments deposited over millions of years, have been eroding into their current shapes since roughly the time the dinosaurs were working out that things weren’t going terribly well for them.

It was warm. It was dusty. Our boots were not entirely up to the occasion. But my word, it was worth every step.

11. Robert Prairie Dog Town

We had, if we’re honest, seen prairie dogs before. Or at least we thought we had. A quick glimpse of something small and brown darting into a hole somewhere. Hardly the stuff of wildlife documentaries. So when Roberts Prairie Dog Town appeared on the map, we weren’t exactly trembling with anticipation.

We were wrong to be sceptical. Quite embarrassingly wrong, as it turned out.

Roberts Prairie Dog Town sits alongside the loop road and is one of the largest active prairie dog colonies — or towns, as the Americans rather charmingly insist on calling them — in the entire Badlands National Park. The black-tailed prairie dog, which is neither black-tailed in any obvious way nor remotely related to a dog, has been living out here on the mixed-grass prairie for thousands of years. At its peak, before European settlers arrived and decided that prairie dogs were a nuisance and set about poisoning them with industrial enthusiasm, the Great Plains supported colonies so vast they were genuinely difficult to comprehend. One recorded colony in Texas in the early 1900s was estimated to contain four hundred million animals and covered an area roughly the size of England. Let that sink in for a moment.

These days, black-tailed prairie dogs occupy a fraction of their original range, which makes places like Roberts Prairie Dog Town rather more important than they might first appear to the casual visitor pulling over for a nosy.

And pull over you absolutely must, because what greets you is wonderful. Hundreds of small, rotund, sandy-coloured creatures going about their business with tremendous seriousness — popping up from burrow entrances, standing bolt upright on their hind legs scanning for predators, barking their distinctive warning calls to one another, and then vanishing underground in a flash before reappearing ten seconds later as if nothing had happened. The whole colony was in a state of cheerful, organised chaos.

The burrow systems underneath our feet were, we learned, extraordinarily complex — multi-chambered underground networks with separate areas for sleeping, raising young and, presumably, avoiding the neighbours. Golden eagles, ferruginous hawks, and the critically endangered black-footed ferret — one of North America’s rarest mammals, which depends almost entirely on prairie dogs for both food and shelter — all rely on these colonies to survive. So what looks like a field full of small comedic rodents is actually a critical ecosystem in its own right. Who knew.

We stood there far longer than we had any reasonable excuse to. But then, that seemed to be something of a theme in the Badlands

Planning your visit to Badlands National Park

📍 Location

Badlands National Park is situated in south-western South Dakota, approximately 75 miles (120 km) east of Rapid City.

Mailing & Park Headquarters Address: 25216 Ben Reifel Road, Interior, SD 57750, USA

There are three main entrance points:

Northeast Entrance (off Interstate 90, Exit 131): 21020 SD Hwy 240, Interior, SD 57750
Pinnacles Entrance (off Interstate 90, Exit 110): 24240 Hwy 240, Wall, SD 57790
Interior Entrance: 20640 SD Hwy 377, Interior, SD 57750

The park sits within the Mountain Time Zone. Most visitors approach via Interstate 90, with the Northeast Entrance being the most commonly used gateway, as it leads directly onto the Badlands Loop Road — the park’s primary scenic drive.

🌐 Website

The official park website is managed by the National Park Service and can be found at:

www.nps.gov/badl

The site provides up-to-date information on conditions, alerts, trail closures, events, and ranger programmes. It also includes interactive maps, details on camping and accommodation, and resources for planning a visit across different seasons.

📞 Contact

Telephone: +1 (605) 433-5361

Email: Available via the online contact form on the official National Park Service website at www.nps.gov/badl/contacts.htm. The park rangers are responsive to enquiries about conditions, accessibility, and programming.

If you are not visiting the Ben Reifel Visitor Centre, rangers can also be reached by phone or email to answer questions about wildlife, trails, geology, or local area orientation.

🎟️ Entry Fees

All visitors to Badlands National Park are required to hold a valid entrance pass. Please note that the park does not accept cash — credit and debit cards only. Passes are valid for 7 days from the date of purchase.

Standard Entrance Passes (7-day):

Pass Type	Fee (USD)
Private Vehicle (and all occupants)	$30.00
Motorcycle (up to 2 bikes, up to 4 passengers)	$25.00
Individual on foot or bicycle (age 16+)	$15.00
Children under 16	Free

Commercial Vehicle Passes (7-day):

Vehicle Type	Fee (USD)
Commercial Sedan (1–6 seats)	$25 + $15 per person
Commercial Van (7–15 seats)	$50.00
Commercial Mini-bus (16–25 seats)	$60.00

Annual & Multi-Park Passes:

Visitors planning to explore multiple national parks or returning to Badlands more than once may find better value in an annual or interagency pass:

Pass	Fee (USD)
Badlands Annual Pass	$55.00
America the Beautiful – National Parks Pass	$80.00
America the Beautiful – Senior Pass (lifetime)	$80.00
America the Beautiful – Senior Pass (annual)	$20.00
Military & Access Passes	Free

Passes can be purchased on arrival at any of the three entrance stations, or in advance via Recreation.gov. Note that site passes purchased online are non-refundable and non-transferable.

🕐 Opening Times

Badlands National Park is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Visitors may enter and exit at any time, even when entrance stations are unstaffed. Entrance fees are collected year-round.

Ben Reifel Visitor Centre (the main visitor facility):

Season	Opening Hours
Summer	7:00 am – 7:00 pm (Mountain Time)
Spring & Autumn	8:00 am – 5:00 pm (Mountain Time)
Winter	8:00 am – 4:00 pm (Mountain Time)

White River Visitor Centre (South Unit, Pine Ridge Reservation): Open during summer months only. Contact (605) 455-2878 for current hours before visiting.

All hiking trails are open year-round, weather permitting. Roads within the park are also kept open year-round where possible, though the Sage Creek Rim Road (a dirt road near the Pinnacles Entrance) is more susceptible to weather-related closures. It is advisable to check current road and trail conditions on the official website before setting out.

Best time to visit South Dakota

🌸 Spring (March–May)

South Dakota in spring is a season of transformation. The Black Hills shake off their winter coat, wildflowers push through the thawing earth, and wildlife becomes increasingly active — particularly in Custer State Park, where bison calves begin to appear in May. Temperatures range from around 4°C in March to a pleasant 18°C by late May, though snowfall can still occur well into April, especially at higher elevations. Crowds are thin, prices are lower, and the landscape feels wonderfully alive. The Badlands are spectacular in spring light, with dramatic skies and flowering cacti dotting the pale formations. It’s an excellent time for birdwatching, hiking, and road-tripping without the summer rush.

🎒 What to pack: Layered clothing is essential — pack a waterproof jacket, warm fleece, light jumper, and a base layer for cold mornings. Waterproof walking boots will handle muddy trails. Bring sunscreen, sunglasses, and a compact umbrella for unpredictable showers. Binoculars are a worthy addition for wildlife spotting.

☀️ Summer (June–August)

Summer is peak season in South Dakota, and for good reason. Long sunny days, warm temperatures between 25°C and 32°C, and the full opening of every attraction make it the most accessible time to visit. Mount Rushmore buzzes with visitors, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally draws hundreds of thousands in August, and Needles Highway offers some of the most dramatic drives in the American West. The Badlands, however, can be brutally hot — early morning or evening visits are strongly advisable. Wildlife viewing in Custer State Park is superb, with the annual Buffalo Roundup in late September just around the corner. Book accommodation well in advance, especially around Sturgis week.

🎒 What to pack: Lightweight, breathable clothing — shorts, t-shirts, and a light long-sleeved layer for evenings. High-SPF sunscreen and a wide-brimmed hat are non-negotiable in the Badlands heat. Carry plenty of water. Comfortable trainers or trail shoes for walking, and insect repellent for the evenings. A light rain jacket for afternoon thunderstorms.

🍂 Autumn (September–November)

Autumn is arguably South Dakota’s finest season. Crowds begin to thin after Labour Day, temperatures cool to a comfortable 10–20°C range, and the Black Hills ignite with golden aspens and crimson oaks. The famous Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park, held in late September, is one of the most spectacular wildlife events in North America. The Badlands take on rich ochre and amber tones in the lower sun, making for extraordinary photography. By November, cold sets in quickly and some visitor facilities close, so early-to-mid autumn offers the sweet spot of good weather, reduced crowds, and full access to attractions.

🎒 What to pack: Medium-weight layers — a warm fleece, a windproof jacket, and long trousers. Temperatures can swing significantly between day and night, so adaptable clothing is key. Sturdy walking boots with ankle support for trail hiking, gloves and a hat for November visits. A camera with extra memory for the autumn colours and the Buffalo Roundup.

❄️ Winter (December–February)

Winter in South Dakota is raw, quiet, and genuinely beautiful. Snow blankets the Black Hills and the Badlands take on an almost lunar quality under frost and ice. Temperatures regularly drop below -10°C, and blizzards are possible. Most visitor facilities operate on reduced hours or close entirely, and many roads can become treacherous. However, for those prepared for the cold, winter offers a rare sense of solitude and drama — especially in the Badlands, where snow-dusted formations are hauntingly photogenic. Custer State Park remains partly accessible, and the town of Deadwood keeps its frontier saloon character year-round. Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are rewarding in the Black Hills.

🎒 What to pack: Full winter gear is essential — thermal base layers, insulated trousers, a heavy-duty waterproof coat, and a warm hat, scarf, and gloves. Waterproof, insulated boots with good grip are a must. Hand warmers, a car emergency kit (blanket, torch, scraper), and a portable phone charger for cold-weather battery drain. Layers that can be added and removed as you move between heated buildings and the outdoors.

🗓️ Overall Best Time to Visit

If you can only choose one time of year, early autumn — specifically late September — stands out as the sweet spot for visiting South Dakota. The Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park is one of the most thrilling wildlife spectacles in the whole of North America, the summer crowds have largely dispersed, prices ease back from their peak, and the Black Hills are clothed in breathtaking golden and russet tones. Temperatures are comfortable for outdoor activity, the Badlands are dramatic in the lower autumn light, and every major attraction remains open and accessible. Spring runs a close second for those seeking solitude and wildflower scenery on a budget. Summer offers the fullest experience but demands advance planning and patience with crowds. Winter is strictly for the adventurous and well-prepared. Whatever the season, South Dakota rewards those who make the journey with landscapes that are, quite simply, unlike anywhere else in the world.

Other places close by worth visiting

Custer State Park

Custer State Park is famous for its bison herds, other wildlife, scenic drives, historic sites, visitor centres, fishing lakes, resorts, campgrounds and interpretive programs. In fact, it was named one of the World’s Top Ten Wildlife Destinations for the array of wildlife within the park’s borders and for the unbelievable access visitors have to them.

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore is a relatively recent creation and started as a concept by state historian Doane Robinson in 1923. The choice of artist was Gutzon Borglum, a radical sculptor with a sense of scale and outlandish ambition.

The Mammoth Site

The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD is a truly incredible place to visit. We call in every time we are in the area as it is always changing.

Accidently, discovered during a construction project, The dig site is uncommon as the mammoth bones that the excavation has exposed have been left in situ and can be viewed by visitors from raised walkways. It is a most unusual exhibit.

Crazy Horse Memorial

Brule Lakota Henry Standing Bear was born near Pierre, South Dakota, along the Missouri River around 1874. In 1933 he heard that there were plans to build a monument to his cousin Crazy Horse at Fort Robinson where he had met his end. Standing Bear and the Lakota Sioux were determined that any such monument should be built in the Black Hill mountains of South Dakota which had a spiritual significance to his Nation.

The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain, on land considered sacred by some Oglala Lakota, roughly 17 miles (27 km) from Mount Rushmore. When, and if, it gets finished it will dwarf Mount Rushmore.

South Dakota Air & Space Museum

I still get excited when I get the chance to visit a new museum dedicated to air and space, so when I discovered on our journey through South Dakota the South Dakota Air & Space Museum at Ellsworth Airforce Base I jumped at the chance to visit. Like many such aerospace museums, there was plenty of interesting aircraft on display. There are over 30 vintage military aircraft ranging from World War II bombers to the modern-day B-1.

Minuteman Missle Historic Site

If you are looking for another opportunity to catch up on cold-war history and nuclear proliferation then check out the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.

The Minuteman Missile field covered the far western portion of South Dakota from 1963 through the early 1990s. There were 15 Launch Control Facilities that commanded and controlled 150 Launch Facilities (Missile Silos) holding Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. The missile field was operational, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, for thirty years.

You can visit the new visitor centre and take tours of the sites themselves.

Wall Drug Store

As you travel around America, especially the mid-west you’ll come across billboards advertising the Wall Drug Store. These billboards are located, in some cases, hundreds of miles from the store itself mostly along a 650 mile stretch of I-90. Apparently, there are more than 300 paid for billboards, some located internationally, and a whole load more unofficial billboards.

The store itself has become a popular stop-off point for people travelling through South Dakota or visiting the local attractions such as Badlands National Park or en route to Mount Rushmore.

Wind Cave National Park

Regarded as sacred by American Indians, exploration of the the area known a Wind Cave did not begin until 1881, when the entrance was noticed by two brothers, Jesse and Tom Bingham. They heard a loud whistling noise, which led them to a small hole in the ground, the cave’s only natural opening.

Today, you can visit the caves and the beautiful plains on the surface above.

Where to stay?

1. Triangle Ranch B&B

Twenty minutes northeast of the majestic Badlands National Park (of National Geographic Traveler’s Drives of a Lifetime fame) experience the “peace of the prairies” on our multi- generation ranch. Triangle Ranch, named for its horse and cattle brand, was homesteaded in 1904 by Lyndy’s great grandparents. After living in a sod dugout then a log house, they ordered and built the beautiful Sears & Roebuck “Alhambra” Catalog Home in 1923, now known asTriangle Ranch Bed & Breakfast.

2. Cedar Pass Lodge

Cedar Pass Lodge first opened for business in 1928, predating the establishment of Badlands National Monument by eleven years. Mr. Ben Millard, a local businessman and close friend of Senator Peter Norbeck, started with a dance hall that brought people from a hundred-mile radius to listen to Lawrence Welk and similar bands.

Millard expanded Cedar Pass Lodge to include the dining room, the Historic Cabins, and a counter for curios. He enjoyed giving nightly geology talks to Lodge guests and was awarded the honor and title of the first “interpreter” in Badlands National Park

3. Best Western Plains Motel

Seasonal outdoor and indoor pools, both heated, are featured at this motel in Wall. The Minuteman Missile Historic Site is 9 minutes’ drive away. Free WiFi is available.

The Wall Best Western Plains Motel has a games room for entertainment. Guests can relax in the hot tub or take advantage of the on-site fitness center. Vending machines are provided for snacks and refreshments..

Badlands National Park is 7.5 mi from the motel. Shopping at the historic Wall Drug Store is 7 minutes’ walk away.

4. Campgrounds

For those interested in front-country camping, the park offers two official campgrounds. The Cedar Pass Campground is a paid campground with 96 sites total, some designated for RV camping with electric hookups. Reservations for the Cedar Pass Campground can be made through contacting the Cedar Pass Lodge online or by phone at 877-386-4383. Sage Creek Campground is a free, first-come first-serve campground with 22 sites. Motor homes, pull behind trailers, and other recreational vehicles greater than 18 feet in length are prohibited. To learn more about these campgrounds, visit the front-country camping page.