The Badlands were named for the absence of life and ability to grow crops in the rocky soil. However, we found there is quite a bit of life there. In fact, of the national parks we visited this trip, we saw wildlife more readily in Badlands. Before we even crossed through the gate, we saw an antelope and many prairie dogs popping out of their mounds to say hi (we assume). Shortly after entering, we turned down Rim Road, a long gravel path traversing the rim of the Badlands canyon. The formations of The Badlands are over 1 million years old and have been created through erosion and deposition. Deposition is the process of rocks gradually building up. Over the course of millions of years, the layered rocks of the Badlands were slowly stacked on top of each other like a layer cake. 500,000 years ago the Cheyenne river raged through the area and eroded the rock away which is what gives Badlands its crater-like landscape.


On one side of the road, scenic views of the other-wordly rocky landscape, on the other a grassland teeming with prairie dogs and bison. We had seen Bison on our visit to Yellowstone National Park a few years ago, but had not seen them this trip. Bison, termed Buffalo in other regions, appear to be big fluffy cows with a silly personality but obviously you don’t want to get to close (horns, stampede, their ability to toss you around like a rag doll, etc). We got lucky and pulled over to interact with the prairie dogs more closely and a large bison lumbered over to our path. We got back in the car to watch him from a safe distance and he continued to come right for us but stopped suddenly at the wooden posts delineating the road from the prairie. He proceeded to scratch his face and body on the post! He stuck out his tongue, scratched up and down, and all around and made silly faces while relieving his fur of its itchy dry dirt. We laughed and watched him for a while.


We drove through the entire park but it was 105 degrees so we opted not to hike. We got some views of the varying landscape of cliffs, canyons, rock formations and other unique features. And of course, we got our stamp on! We made it to the visitor center right before it closed and got the final passport stamp of our month long journey.

Of course, no trip to Badlands is complete with out a visit to Wall Drug. Wall Drug is located in Wall, South Dakota, about 10 minutes from the entrance to Badlands National Park. It is a Costco sized tourist trap with every type of souvenir, drug store item, and assortment of historical relics such as Native American statues, western paraphernalia, and photos of legendary cowboys of the wild wild west. They also have a cafe that offers 5 cent coffee (!) and cheap fresh baked donuts. Wall Drug became famous back in the day for offering free ice water to anyone passing through Wall. Over the years, it has become an iconic attraction in an otherwise unremarkable western town. We ate some lunch, bought some donuts and coffee to go, did a bit of souvenir shopping for the kiddos in our lives, and got the heck out of there. Badlands and Wall Drug were fun stops on our long driving day to our final destination- Sioux Falls, SD.

