Badlands National Park
Western South Dakota Tourist Information
Next Stop
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Welcome to Badlands National Park Western South Dakota Tourist Information |
Next Stop |
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It is perhaps the greatest tourist trap in history. It may be one of the best use of billboards ever. It even rivals padiddle and punch-bug as popular traveling games. But whatever the case may be, you get sucked into this "detour" no matter how much you may try to resist. Way back in Minnesota, we spotted the first sign: Wall Drug - 355 miles. It was followed by periodic signs stretching across three states along I-90 that read:
These are just some of the billboards. Quotes may not be exact. After all, we were traveling at about 75 miles per hour. So after all that. Tell me you wouldn't roll off the exit and into Wall, SD for a peak to see what this phenomenon is all about. We did. Now it's your turn. Click here to return to the main story
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THE BADLANDS Okay, after a day of driving broken up by a little pit stop to see the Corn Palace (Pit Stop) and fifty bazillion signs of this Wall Drug place (Detour), I was ready to get out of the vehicle, stretch and walk Badlands National Park ... in bits and pieces driving from one vantage point to the next of course. The long drive to the Badlands was filled with expectations. My daughter wanted to learn about the Lakota Indian heritage from the region. I think part of her fascination was that her school system back home is called Lakota. My son was enamored by outlaws and cowboys and wanted to know if gold was up in them-there hills. And my wife, she was diggin it because, well, she enjoys paleontology and geology. As for me, I just wanted to see the cool rock formations and explore them up close on a long hike. Needless to say, there was plenty to fulfill all our interests and then some. From the get-go, I warned the kids not to get too close to the edge. I remember a brochure stating this was one of the fastest eroding landscapes on Earth. I also explained how easy it would be to twist and ankle. This was after telling them to make sure they don’t step on any rattlesnakes. So the next 10 minutes were spent coaxing the terrified youngsters out of the vehicle reassuring them everything was safe. Mission accomplished. Our first stop and there was a “trail closed” sign. The kids were the voice of reason saying let’s turn back but I saw many people beyond. Doggonit, in the Griswold spirit of refusing to obey a closed sign after coming all this way, I was pressing on. Miraculously, my wife, normally the ultra conservative voice of reason, was hot on my heels. “Better catch up kids or the rattlesnakes will get you.” This is one of those panoramic landscapes where you do your best to take a picture, shift your hands steadily to the right picking up where the last one left off and snapping another, repeat, another, and another and before you know it, you’ve completed the 360˚. “Not so close to the edge!” That was my wife yelling at me. But if I could get just a little bit closer, I’d be able to snap a great shot. “Get back here …NOW!” Yep, she was getting hot. One more step. Silence. No sign of the wife and kids. I decided to abandon my photo-op and turned around. Getting back was a little scarier than going out on the rock limb. Back in the vehicle I was met with more silence by my wife and a scolding by my own kids with something about having no daddy mixed in there. Anyway, the Badlands are an incredible sight. Being there you realize there is no way to capture the beauty on film. The never ending array of sharply eroded spires, pinnacles and buttes creating 244,000 acres of rock outcrops blended with mixed grass prairie was “bad” (I’m a product of the 80’s) but in the good sense. The Badlands have been named as such by the Lakota describing the topography; the French referring to the lands to cross, and the Spanish calling it a wasteland. In the late 1800’s, bad deeds reflect its name. Nearby were events such as Wounded Knee and Ghost Dance, which was a spiritual movement that was needed to give the Lakota and their larger Great Sioux Nation a reason for hope as their culture was being destroyed by the gold rush and land grabs. Long before people, other critters lived in the Badlands. The geologic conditions make this a Paleontologist’s dreamscape. Fossils galore have been discovered throughout the Badlands. It contains the world’s richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds dating back 37 million years. Mammoths roamed here as well as other mammals. In fact, the evolution of horses and rhinoceroses are studied here because the elements are so kind to science. After a very fun and educational visit to the museum/visitors center the kids, now officially Junior Rangers, enjoyed our deep hike into the Badlands. We didn’t set out to go far but ended up feeling like we were in the Twilight Zone. It was difficult to judge depth of the landscape and our perception was that we had not wandered far until we looked back. Still, there were people hiking way beyond us. We were continuously lured from one rock shelf to another, across a ridge and down a path and then creatively weaving a maze of outcrops of rock formations every which way. At one point as I surveyed the tiers of rocks with hikers’ heads popping up here and there I had an urge to wield a huge Chuck E. Cheese hammer in a demented game of Whack-a-Mole. What if we did get bit by a rattlesnake WAY OUT HERE? Okay kids, time to go back. But which way is back? Timeout. Need. To. Find. A Tree. …if you know what I mean. Hope nobody stumbles upon us for the next 90 seconds. Water. We need more water. New worry: How long before the sun sets? I wonder what kind of animals come out at night? Once we were back to the car, it seemed the sun was shinier than an hour or so ago. There must have been some clouds before. As we drove the ribbon of road taking us to and from scenic overlooks, I began to wonder which was the bigger workout, hiking aimlessly for hours or getting in and out of the vehicle 36 times to take pictures. I miss the days of actual film. This limitless digital stuff enables me to take picture after picture with no concern of film cost or developing fees. That’s it. I have enough pictures (and video) of this place. Nope! Gotta get that shot. By now the kids were teasing me. Surprisingly they weren’t in one of those perpetual “are-we-there-yet" states. “Daaaaaad, I think you really need a picture from that overlook (giggle).” “Dad, check that view out, there’s a pull-off up there (snicker).” My wife is a sleep. This goes on for quite some time and as worn out as I am, I can’t say “No.” So it goes. As we wind out of the BADlands of photo-addiction hell, we see a dozen vehicles parked on the edge of the road overlooking nothing but flat, empty, green space as far as the eye could see only interrupted by clusters of little brown spots. I can’t figure out why so it gives me good reason to wake up my wife. PRAIRIE DOGS! Grab the camera!
Begin your tour at http://www.nps.gov/badl/
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Between Laura Ingalls Homestead and Badlands National Park was a quick stop in the little town of Mitchell, South Dakota.
There, you may visit Mitchell Corn Palace. It really is quite a site. And obviously a huge attraction telling by the crowd and traffic when we stopped. It is very colorful and has spectacular domes, turrets and looks like it could hold its own in Moscow's Red Square along side Saint Basil's Cathedral.
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