Wilderness Wandering

September 17-18, 2023

“The Badlands presents many challenges to easy travel. When it rains in the Badlands, the wet clay becomes slick and sticky, making it very difficult to cross. The jagged canyons and buttes that cover the landscape also make it hard to navigate. The winters are cold and windy, the summers are hot and dry, and the few water sources that exist are normally muddy and unsafe to drink. These factors make the land difficult to survive in. The Lakota christened the area The Bad Lands. 

This introduction was copied from The National Park Service  Badlands web page. 

It is a very accurate description! I kept imagining how difficult it had to be for the early settlers of this area to get around! We arrived mid-morning on a sunny day. The temperature quickly rose into the upper 80s. There is no shade, so it felt much warmer. We immediately saw bison and prairie dogs.

The main way to see the park is the 47 mile Badlands Loop. Almost all the vistas and hikes are off that loop. One cool thing about this park is that you can go almost anywhere. You can wander to your heart’s content. Just make sure you have A LOT of water on you.

Our favorite trail was The Notch. A short walk from the parking lot, you arrive at a steep cliff and you climb a ladder to get to the rest of the trail. At the end, you are rewarded with a fabulous view. The Window and The Door Trails are short hikes that also begin at that parking lot. On The Door hike I noticed a woman wearing a Summerfest shirt. Summerfest is a large WI music festival. I asked if she was from WI. She responded that she was from Waukesha (near Milwaukee). I said “We are from Lake Mills.” She said, “I have a cousin in Lake Mills! Do you know Joyce?” Unfortunately, I have not yet met Joyce. LOL. We had a good laugh.

The scenery is really wonderful. Mile after mile of majestic rock formations of different colors and shapes. We saw bison, antelope, big horn sheep and prairie dogs.
We were unable to get into the one campground inside the park. I did some research and we decided to boondock in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. Right outside the Pinnacles entrance to the park there is a huge several mile long ledge overlooking a deep canyon providing beautiful views. It is called The Wall. It is a popular place to camp overnight or for up to 2 weeks at a time. Calypso made it down the gravel road and we picked a spot along the ledge and set up our camp chairs and soaked in the view.

It was very windy, since the ledge is totally exposed and there is nothing to break the wind. Once again, being in such a remote location, the stars were magnificent! We caught Star Link stealing across the sky.
The ledge was facing east, so we made sure we were up for sunrise and were well rewarded for our effort!

We really enjoyed camping on The Wall, but given the choice, I think we both prefer having access to some sort of bathroom facility and running water. We used our portable toilet for the first time…2 words… learning curve!

We headed back into the park for some early morning wildlife viewing. We happened upon a large bison scratching himself on a post in one of the scenic pullouts, and the largest group of antelope we have seen so far. The rock formations were even more wonderful in the early morning light. Badlands National Park was featured in the movie Nomadland a few years ago. Visiting the park makes me want to rewatch the movie.

Just outside the Northeast entrance of the park, we stopped to visit The Prairie Homestead Museum. It is a wonderfully maintained original sod house and was an informative stop. In the 1800s, you could get a land grant of 160 acres for $18, but you had to farm the land for 5 years to keep it. The owner of the property got National Landmark status for the house and also saved the white prairie dog from extinction. The yard around the house is the only place in the world with white prairie dogs.After that stop, we headed back to Custer for a final night with our friends before we head to Colorado.