They weren't kidding when they named this park

Badlands National Park. We pulled into Badlands National Park (BNP) on a day when temps were pushing for 100F. The next morning we would find out that they set a record for never dropping below 80F at night. Couple that heat with a high wind and it felt like a constant hairdryer. 3 days here?Really? Maybe we'll leave this place tomorrow morning. (We wound up staying for 2 days.)

Despite the weather (not uncommon for this time of year) the scenery was quite impressive. Rivers and rain have eroded the landscape to the way it is today. The wall of sedimentary rock is very soft and it has fared better than the lower lands simply by luck of being farther away from historic rivers. There are many "badlands" in the United States (TRNP, Death Valley to name a few).






We were surprised to find all the trails to be in one part of the park and most were very short. Most National Parks have large regulations about staying on trails, even for the backcountry hikers. Not the BNP. It is one of the last parks to allow visitors free reign to hike/climb wherever they want to. Land navigation is certainly a challenge and there are no water sources in the park, but for those who want freedom of movement and adventure BNP has it.

Badlands continues to be a huge source of fossils and many are found by visitors. The "Big Pig Dig" started by a visitor spotting one bone sticking out of the landscape. They reported it to the Park Service as they are supposed to and the palentologists expected it to take 5-7 days to extract the bone for study. Fifteen years and over 10,000 bones later the "Big Pig Dig" will keep scientists busy for another decade identifying all the fossils.





It's an interesting place and I thought it was beautiful on it's own rights, even though we did find it at it's most inhospitable.