30 Photos From Badlands National Park

In addition to lots of roadside attractions along I-90 in South Dakota, there’s another key attraction – Badlands National Park.

I-90 passes by the park to the north and from the interstate you don’t get much of a taste of what lies beyond other than some pretty rolling hills. It’s worth venturing just south of I-90 to check out the park though.

We’d already had a long travel day when driving from Pierre to Rapid City, so we returned to Badlands National Park a couple of days later.

The photo above was taken from the NE Entrance Station as we left; we actually entered through the Pinnacles Entrance Station. If you want to stop at the visitor center first, it might be worth entering at the NE Entrance Station as that seems to be the closest entrance.

Along the way you’ll pass trailheads for several different hiking trails. You’ll also get to start enjoying the beautiful views available within the park.

At the visitor center you can find out more about the park, get a map of the park, etc.

The visitor center has a museum section which is worth checking out for its interesting information and exhibits.

As with most National Parks, Badlands National Park isn’t particularly pet-friendly. Per the National Park Service website:

Pets must be kept on a leash no more than six feet in length at all times. Pets are only permitted in developed areas, such as campgrounds and picnic areas, and other areas open to motor vehicles, such as gravel and paved roadways, roadway corridors, and parking lots.

Pets are prohibited from hiking trails, public buildings (i.e. visitor centers), and backcountry areas, including the Badlands Wilderness Area, and areas with prairie dog colonies.

Pet etiquette dictates always cleaning up animal waste and disposing of it in trash receptacles.

Although pets are prohibited on trails, there are still opportunities to explore great views with them on Badlands backroads.

We brought our dog Truffles with us that day and so just decided to drive through the park, stopping at all the different overlooks rather than taking advantage of the various hiking trails on offer in the Badlands.

One of the reasons pets aren’t allowed out and about in the park is due to all the wildlife. We saw bison both roaming and chilling a few times.

It should go without saying that you should drive carefully when bison are about, but apparently it does need to be said for some people given the guy who sped past these bison causing them to scatter. The dude in the photo below ended up hanging out in the middle of the road for a while afterwards, so we just sat there and enjoyed his company.

Truffles was very curious about these creatures near the car.

Bison aren’t the only animals you can see. For starters, there’s the Roberts Prairie Dog Town; you can see all the prairie dog mounds below.

Although many of the mounds are in the distance, you can still see some of the prairie dogs close by, albeit not as close as at the Badlands Ranch Store.

You might get lucky and spot bighorn sheep…

…goats and more.

Ultimately though, the main reason to visit Badlands National Park is for its terrain.

The main road running through Badlands National Park is about 30 miles long, so it’s not a particularly huge National Park. You could therefore drive the length of it in an hour or so, but it’ll take longer than that as you’ll want to stop and take photos along the way. We ended up spending about four hours there, so if you want to hike as well you could easily spend all day there.

One of the most eye-catching parts of the park is the area with yellow mounds. These formations have some vivid and vibrant colors.

A couple of hours into our visit we decided to stop for lunch. Due to its relatively small size, there aren’t a ton of picnic areas in the park. Based on the area map, there appears to be four of them; we stopped at the Conata picnic area in the middle of the park’s North Unit.

We’d started off that day with lovely weather, but 2-3 hours into our visit we could see a storm approaching in the distance.

We decided to hustle a little more at that point as the rain seemed to be heading our way quite quickly. The Burns Basin Overlook had blue skies in one direction…

…but ominous looking clouds in the other direction.

I actually liked how moody it made the Badlands look. I was also grateful that we’d not ended up going out for a hike as I wouldn’t have wanted to get caught out in that!

Final Thoughts

Badlands National Park is a great park with lots of overlooks providing beautiful views of the unique terrain below. It’s definitely worth exploring the park when driving through South Dakota.