Interior, South Dakota, United States
Badlands National Park holds a special place in my heart as
the first real attraction on saw heading west on my 1988 trip to the West and
Alaska. I had never before been in such a completely wild and open area where
it felt like I could see to the horizon. It was like being in one of those John
Wayne movies or other Western TV shows that were so popular through the 1970s
when I was a kid. It was probably the most magnificent landscape I had seen to
date. I’ve been back several times since
and the scenery never ceases to enthrall me. It was two or three years after I
was first in the Badlands that the movie “Dances With Wolves” starring Kevin
Costner came out. It is set in the region in the late 1860s and was mostly filmed
there as well. It has remained one of my favorite movies based on theme and
setting.
The Badlands of South Dakota are created by erosion. Their name
comes from the eroded slopes being infertile land devoid of topsoil – bad for
farming. A national monument since 1929, Badlands was not designated as a full
national park until 1978.
The park consists of several barely contiguous units
that take in some of the most impressive of the eroded scenery. While there are some backroads and wilderness
areas, the main part of the park consists of a road that starts and ends at different
exits on I-90 and makes a loop along an escarpment which separates higher plains
from the White River Valley. The park road ascend and descends the escarpment
to numerous scenic overlooks with a number of rather short nature trails and
hikes to scenic overlooks. While there
are campgrounds and a couple longer trails, Badlands isn’t really backpacking
or serious hiking country. While it would be entirely possible to spend several
days, most visitors are day trippers from the Black Hills or people passing
through between east and west. Thus,
there’s very little in the way of services inside or outside the park.
While Rodrigo knew about Mount Rushmore, he had very little
familiarity with Badlands, but I included it on our itinerary as a must to see.
In total we spent a day around the park, but that seems to be enough to stop at
all the overlooks, stop at the visitor center, and do most of the short hiking
trails.
We had good luck with wildlife too – bison, pronghorns, a coyote, cottontail
rabbits, and prairie dogs. The real stars here, though, were the bighorn sheep,
including some rams with impressive spiral racks of horns.
We spent the night just outside the park limits at a small
town on the Sioux Indian Reservation named Interior. By October there’s not
much left open in interior and it felt almost eerily desolate. We found one
place open, though, the Wagon Wheel Bar & Grill, which serves pizza, beer,
and other drinks in an interior and exterior that screams Real West! By morning the only restaurant in the park
had already closed for breakfast by 10:00, so we ended up doing a picnic
breakfast outside the lodge and store.
Rodrigo commented, “I think this is my favorite landscape I
have ever seen!” Rodrigo says that everywhere, though. Nevertheless, the
Badlands of South Dakota are completely enchanting and need to be visited by
everyone who loves the American West and its history and landscapes.
2025-05-22