05-May-2024 Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I thought the South Dakota “badlands” might be something like a combination of a lava field and a swamp and just be a dark mass where nothing can grow … boy was I wrong! I sure didn’t expect the textures and colors and mountain-like terrain that I found today!

Crazy thing is that you drive through grassland and then BOOM! without warning the land drops away into this huge cavernous wonderland. When I first arrived at Badlands I stopped at an overlook and couldn’t believe what I saw: miles of uneven, striped (from the various layers) sediment that had hardened in rough, jagged formations. Here, due to the uneven nature of the terrain, some parts have been washed away and others calcified in place. The texture of the land is like a dried hardened clay - and you can see how it is “ bad land” because nothing can grow in such a solid and unhospitable ground.

I did a lot of exploring at an area where there were 3 trails: the Door Trail, Window Trail and Notch Trail. The Door Trail was a boardwalk that leads you out to the badlands from which you can then hike into/onto the bad land features (staying up on top). I was surprised at how warm it was even though it was quite windy. This place must be unbearably hot in the summer - definitely has a desert like feel to it! The next trail was the Window Trail which was just a short boardwalk to an overlook. The Notch Trail was definitely the highlight of my day! It’s about a 2.5 mile RT Trail and about halfway in you climb a wooden ladder up about 80 feet and then continue hiking from there. There was one family trying to come down the stairs with a young crying child so I waited at the bottom with a couple other hikers. I can only imagine this ladder will be a crowded mess when this place is filled with tourists in the summer! And yes, going down the ladder was definitely a lot more challenging than going up, but the topography and views from the top or spectacular.

From here I went to the visitor center, and was sad to discover the movie projector wasn’t working today so no movie about the Badlands. I refilled my water bottles and headed on to the Saddle Pass Trail. This is an extremely steep 0.3 mile climb to a plateau where I took the castle trail and medicine route trail to make a 4 mile loop. The first part of the hike was good as it was close to the Badlands, but the second part was 2 miles through grasslands and was rather disappointing.

over the course of the day, the wind kept increasing and by the time I got back to the top of Ssaddle Pass Trail I could barely stand against the force. Gusts were frequent and I had to squat and hold on with my hands to steady myself to get off the top of the mountain and out of the wind. It was really unbelievable - it’s SOOOOO windy here!

After the hike, I drove on the Badlands Loop Road and stopped at several overlooks and points of interest. My favorite by far was the yellow mounds overlook where the hills were striped with yellow and pink clay/rock and had a rainbow effect. It really looked fake!

Weather news: The day started out overcast but by the time I stepped foot on my first hike the sun peeked out and for the most part the sun was around the rest of the day. There were a few periods of squalls and storm clouds mid-day that were really interesting and I couldn’t help but take a few too many cloud pictures today. I feel like if I were a Girl Scout I would’ve earned my Weather Badge by braving the wind and taking pictures of the cloud formations! It’s funny that even when you check the weather on your phone the emoji for every hour is just wind! 😂

I found out afterwards that the midday storms did spark tornadoes and gusts in excess of 60 mph; there were times when it was hard to open the car door against the force of the wind and I had to keep a safe distance from the edge at overlooks because the wind gusts often blew me a couple steps off my path. What a windy place!

And I sure did get a lot of steps in today!!! 😁