Ben Reifel Visitor Center at Badlands National Park

Ben Reifel Visitor Center is the main visitor center in the north unit of Badlands National Park. Restrooms, trashcans, and water are available at the facility.

Rangers are available at the information desk year-round to answer any questions you may have about the park. You can also pick up hiking maps here as well as Junior Ranger booklets and other park materials as well as get your passport stamped.

In their theater you can watch the watch the 22-minute park film called, The Land of Stone and Light which talks about the history of the area.

There are also a number of museum exhibits to explore from information on fossils to the Lakota Indians. In the Fossil Preparation Lab, you can watch and chat with paleontologists as they work on actual fossils from the Badlands.

They also have a very nice gift shop.

Unfortunately when we were visiting most of these things were not available because of Covid-19 restrictions. Only the gift shop and restrooms were open and masks were required to enter.

We also had to wait in line, because there was a limit on occupancy in the building. Rangers did have tables set up outside though to answer questions and hand out hiking maps so that was cool.  Also, the views from outside the center are pretty awesome.