Day 2 of Autumn 2023 Trip to Mountain States, Badlands National Park

The second day of my autumn 2023 trip to the mountain states, I toured Badlands National Park, one that featured a unique landscape of extensive eroded buttes and pinnacles.

After spending the previous night at the town of Kadoka, I left the hotel at 8:30am and made the short drive to the eastern entrance of Badlands National Park.

After the detour to minuteman missile sites, I entered Badlands National Park at 9:30am.
Badlands National Park was known for its "Badlands Formation", layered rocks formed by deposition and erosion. The different rock layers were deposited at different geological times, that appeared in different colors. Erosion selectively revealed the rock layers, resulting in the badlands that were visible today.

Logistically, the (developed part of the) park was perfectly sized for a day trip (from Rapid City), which consisted of many roadside overlooks and a few short hikes. For roadtrippers on I-90, it could be done in shorter times if rushed.

Big Badlands Overlook

The first overlook after entering the park (from the east) was "Big Badlands Overlook". This was like a great preview of the park. While I had seen similar landscapes during my 2020 trip to Utah, the buttes here had much higher drainage density, featuring dense interfluves and gullies.
On a different note, before my visit, I was under the impression that the sediments that made up Badlands' landscape were gray and monochromatic, just like the color of mud, hence they were associated with the name "bad". That didn't turn out to be the case. From "Big Badlands Overlook", it's obvious that the landscape was interleaved with layers of pink, an enchanting finishing touch to an otherwise dull scene. It's like the difference between cocktail and water, and I liked the variety offered by the former.

The Door / Window Trail

After a short ride, I was at the parking area for Door/Window/Notch. These were three of the most popular trails in the park.

I checked out The Door trail first (since it's the first one along the route). The trail was made of a short boardwalk through an opening of a rock wall (p1 below), after that through the badlands to an overlook. The entire trail was under 1 mile roundtrip with minimal elevation change.
Compared to other trails in the park, this one (especially the overlook at its end) had the feeling that one was in badlands (instead of overlooking them).

After that, it's "The Window", which was a wider opening in the same ridge/wall than The Door. "The Window" was only a 100m boardwalk from the parking lot. At its end, it offered views of layered badlands geology in different stages of erosion.
As a side note, at first I didn't find the boardwalk, and located another opening in the same ridge/wall about 100m to the north, which offered similar (if not better) views. As a result, I decided to name it "The Mini Window".

The Notch Trail

A very visitor-friendly feature of Badlands National Park was that, its best trails were all very short. At 2km roundtrip, The Notch was one of the longer popular trails. There was a short steep section, but with ladders installed, it shouldn't post any technical challenges.
The Notch shared the same trailhead as The Window (350m south of The Door's trailhead). Some vegetation lined the trail in the beginning part.

500m later, the trail ascended through a steep slope up a valley. A ladder was set up here to aid the hikers (and hence NPS rated this trail as strenuous). It's no big deal for me though.

Once on top of the ladder, the trail continued through a valley, where vegetation was sparse since the landscape wasn't as good at holding water. As the trail went on, the valley got narrower, and the buttes felt closer.

Not long after that, I reached The Notch, which was a giant opening in the same ridge/wall as before. A befitting name would probably be "giant door" or "city gate". But since these names weren't succinct enough, the place was named "The Notch". It came with views of fields to the south that were dotted with badlands, and distant White River Valley.

Backtracking 50m from "The Notch", I found another branch of the trail that headed southeast. Continuing in that direction for about 150m, I reached another location that resembled "The Notch", with similar views of fields to the south. However, I liked this spot better since it's closer to some badland walls to the southeast.

Cliff Shelf Nature Area

After that, my next stop for the day was Cliff Shelf Nature Area, with a 900m loop trail that's half on boardwalk. This area was directly to the south of "The Notch", with views of cliffs nearby. The nearby landscape channeled water to the area, allowing abundant plants to grow here.

After that, I checked out the park's Ben Reifel Visitor Center (or mainly the picnic grounds around it). While enjoying the snacks, I noticed the buttes and pinnacles near the visitor center were some of the most attractive/scenic/iconic in the park, so I grabbed the following photos.

Saddle Pass Trail

After leaving the visitor center, I decided to check out Saddle Pass Trail, the only trail that I hiked today that's not in the Door/Window/Notch section.
In the park, the only long trail that's also popular was Castle Trail, connecting Door/Window/Notch in the east and Fossil Exhibit area in the west. If Castle Trail was a highway, Saddle Pass Trail was then its only exit in the middle. The trail was only 1km out-and-back, but it ascended the Badland Wall in the process so it was steep at places. Even worse, most of the trail was made of fine sediment gravel that didn't provide as good traction compared to other trail surfaces. I didn't bring trekking poles for this trip and as a result, really struggled for traction at two spots (p3-4 below).

On top of Saddle Pass it's a typical prairie scene to the north (p3 below), that was dotted with badland buttes. To the south, there were towering views of badlands in the foreground along the park road, and extensive fields in the background. To spice things up, I identified a path up a small overlook (p1) which was more prominent. Despite the looks from the photo, it was actually a lot easier and safer than Saddle Pass Trail.

Other Overlooks in the Park

All in all, I spent about 50 minutes at Saddle Pass. After leaving, I spent the remainder of the day checking out various roadside overlooks in the park.

In my opinion, if one was interested in the buttes and pinnacles, then the most exciting views were either around Ben Reifel Visitor Center, or around Fossil Exhibit Trail. The following photos were from roadside turnouts just before Fossil Exhibit Trail, a feast of pinnacles for the eye.

The day started out cloudy but the sun came out later in the day. As a result, most of the photos west of Fossil Exhibit were taken against the light, which wasn't ideal.

 

Then a quick discussion about animals in the park. During my visit, it seemed that they were more active in the western part of the park. The most common sightings were prairie dogs, but I was into something more impressive like bisons. My wishes were fulfilled just before I exited the park, as a group of bisons were resting in the field not far from the road.

While Badlands National Park offered more to explore in its western and southern part, I preferred paved roads so I left the park from Pinnacles entrance. Not long after that, I was at the town of Wall.

Wall Drug Store

For a town with a population of 700, Wall Drug Store was certainly an outstanding presence. Started out as a small pharmacy in the 1930s, through relentless advertising and popularity of the nearby Badlands National Park, now it's a proper mall and department store (that focused on souvenirs). Their advertisement was so aggressive that it's impossible to miss their billboard signs driving along I90 in South Dakota.
While I wasn't too much into their souvenir shops, I was getting hungry and they had a cafeteria. To make things better, while waiting for my order, the cafeteria was also a western art gallery, perfect for me that was into everything oil on canvas. (Unfortunately no photos were allowed for the arts.)

After dinner, I checked out the rest of the Wall Drug Store, together with their giant dinosaur statue near the town's interstate exit.
After that, I drove towards my overnight lodge in Rapid City where I would spend the next few days exploring Black Hills.
END