Another day, another stretch on the plains. This time across South Dakota from Mitchell to Rapid City. Once again, I broke the journey with some sightseeing and, today, it was at Badlands National Park. Badlands get their name as they do not support farming, offer few resources and are difficult to cross due to their rugged terrain and slippery mud after rain (I know as I almost fell over and my car’s floor mat is now very dirty). The area is particularly interesting for geologists and paleontologists as the soft rocks erode easily revealing underlying rock layers and many fossils. Several important fossil finds have been made by visitors to the park and the National Park Service maintains a paleontology lab here to follow up on such discoveries.

Badlands are, however, an interesting and varying landscape and the most prominent feature of the park, for me, was the scenic loop road that passes through it with short interpretive trails leading from viewpoints. I have included some photos below but you will get a much better idea of the experience by viewing the map and video here.

Also seen in the video is crossing the Missouri river which was so wide that I first thought it was a lake when I saw it from a distance.

The variety of the form and color in the Badlands can be seen in the following photos.