Must-do trails for seeing Badlands’ wonders

Among the best ways to see Badlands National Park’s major sights is via a day hike. Just three short trails will allow you to enjoy each of the park’s highlights – fascinating geological formations, fossils and prairie.

Badlands
The 1.5-miles out-and-back Notch Trail runs through eroded buttes, pinnacles, spires that this corner of South Dakota is known for. The rock making up the formation were deposited from 75 million to 34 million years ago; they only started to erode away about half a million years ago. The trail begins at the south end of the Door and Window parking area. If you have a fear of heights, avoid this route and instead do the Door or Window trail.

Fossils
The Badlands is a treasure trove of fossils – reptile sea monsters, rhinoceroses, camels, three-toed horses, clams, ammonites. The Fossil Exhibit Trail provides a 0.5-miles round trip on a boardwalk past fossil replicas and interpretive displays through the eroding buttes.

Prairie
The Badlands sits on a mixed grass prairie; Western wheatgrass, which grows up to two-feet high, dominates and is a vital food source for wildlife from prairie dogs to bison. The Medicine Root Loop is a 4-mile trail through the prairie; from a parking lot off of Old National Road, take Castle Trail as a stem to Medicine Root Loop.

Learn more about national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks guidebook.

Door Trail: A great Badlands trail for kids

Door Trail at sunrise in Badlands National Park.

Hiking the Door Trail in Badlands National Park is like a two-for-one deal. The trail begins amid the prairie’s level and open grasslands. It ends in a bizarre menagerie of spires and domes encased by striped, twisting canyon walls.

The trail is located two miles northeast of the Ben Reifel Visitor Center on the Loop Road. Pull over in the large Door and Window parking area. The 0.25- to 0.75-mile trail starts in the parking lot’s northern end.

The Wall
Pavement covers the trail for the length of a football field, as grasses sway in the wind, rippling like ocean waves. Sometimes bison can be spotted. Be wary of prairie rattlesnakes that like to sun themselves on rocks or hide under bushes; so long as you stay on the trail, though, the chances of encountering one is low.

The trail remains easy until coming to the break in the Badlands Wall. This break is known as “The Door” – hence the trail’s name.

Nearly 60 miles long, the Wall marks the edge of a massive area of erosion that has left behind remarkable looking geological features. Three river systems, wind, rain and snow melt over the past 5 million years have carved out the Badlands. The Wall continues to be made today, at the rate of an inch a year.

Walking through the break is indeed like entering a new room and a bizarre one at that. The scene is otherworldy, even surreal, a sharp contrast to the prairie you’ve left. A quarter-mile boardwalk offers fantastical views of the Badlands.

Spur into the badlands
The trail technically ends past the wall, but a spur allows you the trek through a maze of rolling mud hills. Yellow signposts point which way to go, but they are not particularly high, making them easy to miss from a distance. Because getting off the off-beaten path is easy here, and given the steep drop offs, you’ll probably want to turn around if traveling with young children walking on their own.

If heading onto the spur, remain constantly aware of your location and don’t allow children out of sight. Also, make sure you wear good walking shoes as the ground is rugged.

You might be lucky enough to spot a fossil in these mudhills. If you do, report it at the visitor center. You may have just discovered an important new fossil bed!

The best time to visit the Badlands is in late spring or mid-September. Summers are oppressively hot and winters bone-chilling cold. Regardless of the season, expect wind. Afternoon lighting is best for views from the Door Trail.

Learn more about national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks guidebook.

Photo album, map of Badlands’ Door Trail

Hiking the Door Trail in Badlands National Park is like a two-for-one deal. The trail begins amid the prairie’s level and open grasslands. It ends in a bizarre menagerie of spires and domes encased by striped, twisting canyon walls.

The trail is located two miles northeast of the Ben Reifel Visitor Center (where a trail guide is available for purchase) on the Loop Road. Pull over in the large Door and Window parking area. The 0.75-mile trail starts in the parking lot’s northern end.

Among the best times to hike the trail is sunrise when dawn lights the rock formations in unique colorations:

Map of Door Trail:

Panorama of Badlands from Door Trail:

White mudhills of The Wall:

Peaks in Badlands:

Door Trail sunrise:

Here's a full description of the trail.

Learn about other great national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks guidebook.