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By Ari, 09/12/2009 8:56 am

The Badlands is just a quick stop off interstate 80 in South Dakota, but it is a world away. If you are coming from the East (exit 131) be sure to stop at the gas station at Cactus flat to fill up your car and yourself. Once you are in the park, it’s harder to come by essentials (besides going into the town of “Interior” which is located near the campground). This park has enough things to do for days, or even a quick stop if you are driving further. The Cedar Pass area has tons of hiking trails. My favorite is the Notch trail, which has a dramatic wood slat ladder that needs to be climbed in the middle of the trail, and when you get to the end… well, I won’t ruin it for you – but worth going. The Door and Window trails in this area are also worth checking out, especially if you have limited time.

The Prairie dogs look cute, until you see the signs that they carry Plague. That will motivate you to break out the zoom lens instead of trying to visit them up close!

The campground here is really nice – it has covered picnic tables which are good to block the strong sun, and the views are terrific. There is an automated system to pay, though, and when I was there I saw many people cursing at it’s bill accepting slot (I used a credit card). They say the campground rarely fills, but it was almost there when we went to sleep, so I’d guess there are some times it is worth getting in early. Ample water is here. We experienced strong nighttime wind and storms, so much so that our tent was collapsed several times until I tied off the poles with additional stakes. One thunderstorm even drove all the tent dwellers to their cars. We were told the next day that if there were a tornado, they would come around and have us take shelter in the bathrooms (!). I think I’d rather go to the recently refurbished and really nice Ben Reifel Visitor center to take shelter, it’s just up the road. It has a great museum, gift shop, and a nice theatre. On a really hot day, it’s a good mid day break from the heat.

My favorite things to do here

• Notch Trail
• Cliff Shelf Nature Trial
• Fossil Exhibit Trail

Things I want to come back to do

• Stay at the Cedar Pass Lodge
• Hike the entire Castle Trail
• Visit the White River section

Fun Facts

• The most endangered mammal in North America (the black footed ferret) was reintroduced here
• Used to be used as a gunnery range by the US Army
• The massacre at Wounded Knee happened here

National Park Service Website: http://www.nps.gov/badl/

NPS Map: http://home.nps.gov/applications/hafe/hfc/carto-detail.cfm?Alpha=badl

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By Ari, 09/12/2009 8:56 am

This is actually a pretty interesting place, right between Mt. Rushmore and Jewel Cave. If you are heading south from rushmore, you’ll enter the park at the northern entrance and then drive for miles and miles through rugged countryside with an abundance of animals and wide vistas. There are a number of turnouts and access to hiking trails here, particularly the strenuous Rankin Ridge trail loop that leads to lookout tower (I didn’t hike the trail since we were trying to make a cave tour deadline, but you can see the tower from the park road, and I can tell that the views from it would be fantastic). We then passed the campground (I wanted to get a site but again we were rushing to make a tour, another reason I don’t like parks with timed events).

The visitors center is actually very nice. I made the mistake of standing at the first desk waiting for a ranger to become available for a few minutes before realizing that they don’t sell tour tickets there, and there is a separate desk at the far left corner to buy tickets. I say “buy” but, surprisingly, they were FREE with a national parks pass (this is somewhat unusual, since often the pass gets you into a park, but things that cost money like tours cost extra).

So this was a pleasant surprise. Our tour ended up to be 1.5 hours and pretty interesting. We started the tour outside under a shelter where a tour guide told us the rules, and we tried to keep our 4 year olds sitting still and quiet. We also met a couple who ended up knowing some people we know in Ithaca. So small world, again. We then hike to the “original” cave entrance, which you can’t go into anymore (you’d have to crawl and be pretty small), but here is the place where you understand why it is called “wind cave”.

The entrance of the cave vents cold cave air into the countryside, and this creates the “wind” which makes a howling sound when it gets going fast. One of our boys was very excited by this, and he doubled over laughing, unfortunately hitting his head on the rock wall in the process. Quite hard. The lump was there for a few days. Fortunately, he was ok and stopped crying before we headed into the cave.

Inside the cave (which is accessed via revolving door and an artificial entrance) is pretty much like other caves. The tour is good, but I wouldn’t recommend it for small children since there just isn’t enough to keep them interested, formation wise, like there is at Mammoth or Carlsbad.

On our way out, we considered camping at the campground, but one of the sections was closed for maintenance and the other sites were basically on the big road, and it wasn’t terribly scenic. So we moved on and found a hotel instead. Beware hotels in the area are pricey because of the proximity to Rushmore.

My favorite things to do here

• Cave tour

Things I want to come back to do

• Lookout tower

Fun Facts

• First Cave to be designated a National Park, anywhere in the world!

National Park Service Website: http://www.nps.gov/wica/

NPS Map: http://home.nps.gov/applications/hafe/hfc/carto-detail.cfm?Alpha=wica

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