102 STARK & WILD
badlands
national park
SOUTH DAKOTA
Around 70 million years ago, sea covered
most of the present-day Great Plains. Today,
some of the thick sediments of that sea, lifted
and eroded, have become the rugged canyons
and deeply carved buttes of the 244,000-acre
(987 sq km) Badlands National Park. This
otherworldly landscape would be remarkable
on its own, but the region also contains the
world’s richest fossil beds from the Oligocene
period (laid down 20–35 million years ago),
along with the largest protected area of
mixed-grass prairie in the United States.
DON’T MISS
Take Interstate 90 north of the park for access to
Badlands Loop Road (Hwy. 240). This scenic drive
winds through some of the park’s finest landscapes,
ofering a host of scenic overlooks and trailheads for
a wide variety of hikes.
From the realms of science fiction: the badlands of
South Dakota seem to belong on another planet.