Badlands National Park

The Badlands National Park in South Dakota is almost 250,000 acres of eroded buttes, canyons, pinnacles and spires. Within the park is also the largest native mixed grass prairie in the United States. The area got its name from the Lakota Indians who called this place "mako sika" which translates into "land bad." 

Protected within the park are sites where Native Americans held Ghost Dances in the 1890's and a former United States Air Force bomb and gunnery range. The park is co-managed by the National Park and the Oglala Lakota Indian tribe.  

Last year, 977,778 visitors from all around the world came to see the rugged beauty of Badlands National Park where ancient mammals like rhinos, mammoth and sabre-tooth tigers roamed. When you tour the park now, keep a sharp lookout and you will see bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets. Also keep a sharp eye out for deadly rattlesnakes! If you stay on the paths though, you probably don't have to worry much about them as they generally try to stay away from humans.

At the Ben Reifel Visitor Center. It was
named after the 1st U.S. Congressman
from the Sioux Nation. 

Plan to spend at least a full day in the park so you can take your time driving the routes, hike some trails, and take some wonderful photographs. Lil Dude Troll certainly enjoyed his trip here and he's sure you will too!

Lil Dude isn't afraid of a rattlesnake -
as long as it is dead and enclosed in a
glass display case! 

Just inside the park on the prairie just
before the "bad lands" begins. 

Hiking a trail into the bad lands.

Hiked just a short distance and the
bad lands start just down the trail. 

Bad lands for sure!

In another area of the park where the
prairie grasses come right up to the
canyons of the bad lands.

Don't forget to watch out for those
rattlesnakes!