The Badlands were a real surprise for me. I think maybe because I have never seen pictures or heard a whole lot about this park I didn’t know what to expect. The large focus on nearby Yellowstone and Tetons leave the Badlands often overlooked, but I would like to shout about how much I loved this park! My husband, on the other hand, would say it was nice but certainly low on his list of favorites for this trip.

We arrived in the Badlands in the evening so our plan was to simply drive through the park from the east entrance to the north entrance headed toward some free public land where we had planned to camp for the night. It was hard to push through the park without stopping at every overlook though. It was BEAUTIFUL and the sun setting lit up the rock structures in the most stunning way.

A quick note: we did stop by the Wall Drugstore on this first night (located in the town of Wall just north of Badlands National Park) to see what the hype was about, but we were very disappointed. I actually wonder if we didn’t actually see the whole place, but I would say it’s definitely not worth the stop.

Just outside the north entrance to the Badlands is some free public land and it is definitely well known. Right off the main road on the east is a dirt path that runs along the edge of a cliff. Anyone can pull off on this road and just set up camp for the night. I would guess there were probably 100+ campers there the night we stayed. There are no bathrooms or amenities of any kind but the view is stunning. A very important thing to know about this spot though is that it is known for being EXTREMELY windy. I am not exaggerating here. The car rocked all night. We actually had originally parked the 4Runner on the edge of the cliff, but in the middle of the night we decided to move to the other side of the road for some peace of mind. Watching the sunrise from our car the next morning though made the trouble worth it.

After watching the sunrise, we headed into the park to make some coffee and breakfast (oh and to find bathrooms of course). Our cooking setup for this trip was a good one. We had a portable Coleman gas stove and we just made simple breakfasts and dinners. For lunch we usually just grabbed a protein bar or a sandwich on the go.

After breakfast we chose a couple of shorter hikes in order to get in and among the rock formations. My husband and I are definitely hikers, but since we needed to make it all the way to Rapid City this night we had to choose short trails. We did about 2 miles out and back of the Castle trail and then a 1 mile round trip Notch trail. This second trail was my favorite of the two. It involved climbing a ladder and it had a gorgeous view. I would definitely recommend it for those that can handle the climb.

We could not have asked for better hiking weather, it was 75 degrees and mostly sunny. I would love to have that now instead of the winter gray that is happening in Indiana at the moment.

Stay tuned for more posts about our 2020 trip to the west!