We knew we needed to get up early to explore Badlands National Park ahead of the sweltering heat, and Lisette woke up at 5am (without an alarm!), and we were at the Park before 7am. The Visitor Center didn't open until 8am, so we went straight to the Cliff Shelf Trailhead, a short, paved walk with a few stairs that provided a beautiful view of the Badlands.
Cliff Shelf Trail
Because the terrain is so rugged and dry, we saw Utah juniper trees that we hadn't seen since we were in the national parks in that state, and even a few sporadic, small cacti! The Lakota people who lived here found the white hills to be a place for bountiful hunting, but French trappers in the mid-1700s found the sharp peaks and crumbling rock to be more of a challenge, and called the area "les mauvaises terres" (bad lands), which stuck.
Door Trail
The Door Trailhead is a short out-and-back hike that starts on a boardwalk that leads to a natural "door" opening in the rock formation, where we could stroll freely among the canyons and sharp pinnacles. After experiencing the Badlands primarily through vistas yesterday, it was an awesome contrast to be right in the trenches of the rocky terrain today! There weren't really many people when we were there, so had this rugged, surreal landscape all to ourselves. On the way back to the parking lot, we saw the back of the signpost where a couple of people had placed stickers, including Husky On Tour! Harry had been here before us, and then headed to Yellowstone where we'd met.
Window Trail
Starting from the same parking lot, is the entrance to the very short Window Trailhead, almost 0.5 kilometers (0.3 miles) that's out-and-back, which only takes about 5 minutes. The trailhead leads to a "window" of the intricate and fragile canyon, giving another lovely view of the formations.
Badlands Loop Road
After a brief stop at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center (great to get orientation to Badlands, there's also plenty of exhibits and a Fossil Preparation Lab to watch paleontologists at work on the fossils), we decided to explore Badlands by driving along the popular Badlands Loop Road. The temperatures were already quickly surpassing 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) fairly early in the morning, so we figured we'd stop at the various vista points along the road.
As we drove along, we were flanked by the beautiful white rock formations of Badlands, and could see all the jagged edges, sharp points, and crumbly columns up close. It looks extremely rough and rugged, but at the same time so fragile. Of course, we took a lot of photos and videos, but these don't fully convey the experience in seeing this all up close, and the magnificence of how this landscape has formed over millions of years.
One excellent stop is the White River Valley Overlook, which was great because we not only could see the Badlands and prairies stretch for miles, but also could walk further out beyond the pullout. The photos are videos are more dramatic when it looked like we were completely enveloped in the rugged terrain! The landscape is very surreal and many of the rocks looked like they had a red line painted across them horizontally due to the different rock layers forming, which made it even more majestic.
Yellow Mounds Overlook
Yellow Mounds Overlook deserves its own subheading. It's along Badlands Loop Road, but when we turned the corner and saw it, we let out audible gasps of wonder and excitement. While the other rock formations before this were mostly grey, white and red, these yellow mounds are best characterized by also having bright mustard colors, as well as tufts of green growing within the rocks. The mustard color is from the mineral goethite, which clearly is in abundance among these rocks. The colors are so vibrant that it doesn't seem real, like they've been painted with this color with thick brushes. Just when we thought we'd seen it all when it comes to rock formations and terrains, we come across something else that's new! Now we understand why people have told us that Badlands is one of their favorite national parks in the US, with its out-of-this-world terrain and diverse wildlife. As a national park, it is lesser-known around the world compared to the likes of Yellowstone, making the sights unexpected when it's rather underrated.
We stopped at a couple of other vista points, including Pinnacles Overlook, a popular stop during sunset to take in the sweeping views and undoubtedly the changing colors of the rocks at dusk. There's so many different stops along the way, and while some provide similar views, it's good to take one's time to check these out (especially if, like us, we skipped doing any long hikes because of the heat). The only thing we didn't really see due to the weather were much wildlife, although we'd definitely had our share of deer, elk, bison, and other animal sightings in Yellowstone.
From Badlands to Burning Lands
Not long after midday we arrived back at the RV Campground, as temperatures soared, and kept soaring, to a high of 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit)! There was absolutely no respite. It was as hot as a sauna inside our RV, and while we found some shade to sit outside behind our vehicle, the winds were so hot that it felt like we were roasting in a furnace. The three of us didn't have much choice but to wait it out until the evening--and to top it off, there were flies buzzing around us, which also gave painful bites, like mosquitoes! We've never encountered these awful mosquito/fly hybrids anywhere else. And people think Australia is bad for insects....
While the wind picked up in the late afternoon and evening, it wasn't until around 10pm that the weather actually felt cooler. We ended up chatting to the friendly couple next to us, who were from Ohio and spent a lot of time going on road trips, and love fishing. We got a lot of great tips from them on places to visit in other states (funnily enough, they didn't think there was much to see in Ohio despite living there--their top places were Old Man's Cave, a hiking spot in Hocking State Park, and Jungle Jim's International Market, a quirky grocery store that sells everything from around the world). We gave them some Vegemite to try to see how they'd like it, and said our goodnights as the mosquitoes settled in for the evening. Hopefully tomorrow won't be as hot, as we've had 3 straight days of intense heat!
Route Map
