Badlands National Park

I can't explain why, but I have always wanted to go to the badlands. This despite a complete inability to tell you what the badlands even are. I think I simply had a rough idea that the terrain was beautiful in an other-worldly sort of way. And let's be honest, calling something "badlands" just sounds cool.

Therefore, this was the park I was most excited to visit on this trip.

As I learned at one of our previous parks, "badlands" has come to mean land that isn't good for much of anything. That term is used all over the world, but this park claims to be the genesis of it. It's an apt term. The land, while beautiful, is rotten for anything other than looking at. But that's ok; we weren't here to farm it!

I suppose the hills are technically made of rock, but up close it looks like hard-packed mud. It seems like a strong rain would just dissolve them. I guess that's technically true, though it happens slower than one would think it should when looking closely at them.

The kids enjoyed climbing the hills (we've learned that weaving some unstructured climbing into our hikes cuts down on the complaining). We saw more prairie dogs and bison. We also saw some bighorn sheep, which were new to us. While I definitely enjoy seeing wildlife, that enjoyment is tempered a bit when they live within a fence and all have radio collars. Makes them feel not so "wild," if you know what I mean.

While equally unsuitable for much of anything, these badlands were quite different in appearance from the previous ones we saw in North Dakota. The North Dakota ones had flatter tops and more colors. That said, these were still quite stunning. It's really something to look to your right and see prairie then look to your left and see badlands.

After all of the anticipation, was this my favorite park? It was not. I enjoyed it, but I preferred the badlands of Theodore Roosevelt to these.