Pinnacles Overlook

Ben Reifel Visitor Center

The Sunset

The Experience - in detail! (7/22/21)

Badlands National Park has to be on your to do list of place to visits. No photo or video can match the experience of visiting it live. Give yourself at least one full day in the park to really appreciate it - two or three would be best if you want to tackle multiple hikes. The scenic drive alone can take a couple of hours if you plan to stop to enjoy the overlooks along the way. 

Hiking:

The Door and Window Trails are not really hikes. They are just a pair of short walking paths along a boardwalk to the large openings representing the Door and Window providing spectacular views. I missed doing the Notch Trail which is only about a mile long and likely worth including. The parking lot for the Door and Window trails is also the best and biggest visitor parking lot to start other hikes - especially the Castle and Medicine Loop Trails

The Castle and Medicine Loop trails are across the road from the parking lot at Door & Window and takes you into the heart of the plains of the Badlands. You will not really do down into any of the valleys and while I am sure visitors can get permits for those types of hikes, they were not on my radar for this trip. Loop trails are my favorite to avoid the feeling of backtracking and still enjoying looping back to where you originally parked so as to avoid needing a ride back (or a boring walk along the road back to where you parked. This was a solid 7 mile hike and most folks will want to do this in the right temperatures such as first thing in the morning, especially if arriving in middle of the summer heat. I wanted to be sure I had a tent site for the night which pushed me into starting my hike about 1pm local time with 95 degree heat and no shade. I'm not kidding - there's effectively zero shade on this hike. There was one tree that I remember seeing and if the sun isn't directly overhead you can snag some small pockets next to the bigger rocks, but generally speaking - don't plan on taking any breaks in the shade on this hike.

The trail is marked very well with metal pillars about three feet tall and a few inches wide with the tops painted red. I only ran into one area - as I was on the return part of this join trail look at about the 5.5/6 mile mark I lost the trail. I knew there was a trail marker somewhere near by but in the blazing sun and exhausting heat and early exhaustion I could not locate it. I spent about 15 minutes doing larger and larger circles trying to spot the marker (you can see where this occurred at the 36:45 time in the hiking video above). One direction forces you down into chasms (which I knew wasn't right) and the other direction looked open and bare. It was dry, so there were little or no footprints to trace. If you are doing this hike and you are you coming up on this range of distance, you will find yourself going around the right side of a large mound and then it just opens up - look to your left (I think it is the west) and walk away from the obvious chasms and narrows - just keep going for about 2-3 minutes keeping your eye sharp for the marker and you'll find it). If you like hiking, I think this is a must do hike for going into the heart of the Badlands and getting a feel for the environment. There are so many other hikes throughout the park and some that are probably even better, but I felt great completing this one and getting to really know what the Badlands feels like. Next time I'm going to have to look into some hikes that go down into the valley.

Camping:

The Cedar Pass lodge directly next to the Ben Reifel VC has camping and RV sites available. There are a number of them that can be reserved ahead of time via the website. The other option (and the one I went for) was the first come first serve spots. These are good if you don't need much. You get a picnic table, a little shelter, and a place to pitch the tent. Supposedly these become available starting at noon each day, but by time I arrived at 11am, a good number of them had been spoken for. I suggest arriving early and getting yours reserved starting at 9 or 10am just to be cautious. Not all spots are the same. I drove a couple laps around the camping sites before I found one that was not completely overrun by weeds or had evidence of mud/standing water from recent rains.

There is another first come first serve set of camping sites on the western side of the park near the Pinnacles overlook. I considered going for one of those sites, but after speaking with some of the rangers and folks working at the Lodge, it was recommended to just snag at spot at Cedar Pass. The other great thing about Cedar Pass Lodge sites is that it is in walking distance of the Amphitheatre where they put on a nightly stargazing show led by rangers and local enthusiasts.

The Star Gazing Activity:

I have to be honest - I was not very impressed by this which is probably my fault as I love star gazing and had pretty high expectations for how it would go. If you have never participated in one - do so, but you don't see quite as much as you might think you will. They have a slide show running at the start and once the sun is fully set the show begins. They have some telescopes set up to view the moon and planets like Mars or Venus (or even Saturn) up close. They rangers then point out various significant stars and constellations and talk through them, their history, etc. Little kids would love it. I wanted a lot less ambient light and more stars and even a good view of the Milky Way - however the recent wildfires and a near full moon cut into some of that possibility. I was also hoping to get some education on night photography, but that is not part of the event - at least not in the Badlands viewing. It's about a 30-60 minute show and worth doing at least once. At other parks, the show could be different and if you are into night sky viewing, be sure to ask about them.

Cedar Pass Lodge Eating: 

I have to give credit to Matt & Karen Smith of the "Dear Bob & Sue" series for commenting on the food. One of their podcasts from the summer of 2021 had reviews of great places to eat near the national parks and I realized I should start including that in the rants and ravings of my visits. I will keep this short - do not waste your money on the food at the Cedar Pass Lodge. Flies everywhere, food tastes terrible (just flash frozen meat, etc.), and limited fountain drinks. I expect to pay extra at a place in the park as that is pretty standard, but if I am going to pay extra I also want better quality for it. 

Overall - this National Park was awesome and I will definitely be coming back with the family while picking some new hikes to tackle as well. It doesn't beat Bryce Canyon for sheer awesomeness, but it's not far behind. My jaw did drop a couple times at the different views I experienced. 

Summer 2022 Road-trip with Kahlan, Avery, & William: 

This was the first real major stop of our 2022 Summer Road trip. We first stopped to check out the views from the Door and Window outlooks before taking the full scenic drive from the east side of the park to the far west entrance. Kahlan was most impressed with this park. We did not do any major hikes, but took in the major scenic overlooks and spotted some cool wildlife include big horn sheep, prairie dogs, and (FINALLY) the BISON! 

If you take the scenic road drive heading west onto the gravel/dirt road, this is where you can find the Bison herd. It was AWESOME. There had to be several hundred Bison roaming the area - so many that when we first spotted them, we thought they might be bushes or small trees. We were also lucky enough to have a couple of them make their way near to the road and a scenic overlook for some close up photos. We were smart enough to stay in the car as we circled them a couple times for some good up close views without getting them all riled up and decided to tackling the car or us.