Our 2024 Visit To Badlands National Park And Wall, South Dakota

South Dakota is one of our favorite states to visit and every year during our travels we end up finding our way there. This year we were heading to Wyoming to escape the heat wave and needed a free spot for the weekend.

 

Badlands National Park just happened to be on the way so we boondocked in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland again, sometimes referred to as The Wall, which is located just minutes from the Pinnacles entrance of the park.

The Wall is massive and we found a little spot with great views. We saw a coyote this time so be sure to keep your pets leased and be with them when outside.

This was the first year boondocking here when cows were roaming the area, and there were so many cute babies.

We headed to the tourist trap of  Wall Drug to walk around and pick up some cool trinkets. We got wild blackberry and huckleberry shakes from the Soda Fountain Ice Cream Shop and they were two of the most delicious shakes I’ve had in years.

 

Also, don’t miss the World’s Largest Jackalope Sculpture in town at Dahl’s Chainsaw Art or the Wall Drug 80 Foot Dinosaur behind the Conoco gas station in town.

We went into Badlands National Park on Sunday and visited the Ben Reifel Visitor Center. This was the first time the fossil lab was open during one of our visits and it was very cool to watch them working on a dinosaur skull.

 

During this visit, he hiked up the short but steep Saddle Pass Trail and then proceeded to hike the Medicine Root Loop Trail once we reached the top.

We have done these hikes before but wanted a little longer hike early in the morning and five miles suited us well.

We saw two different nonvenomous species of snake sunning themselves on the trail so watch your footing because rattlesnakes are common here as well.

 

Speaking of wildlife we were in the park for less than fifteen minutes and saw bison, prairie dogs, mule deer, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn with babies.

Badlands National Park is an amazing place to view wildlife.

For more details on anything I listed above just click on the link. You can check out all my posts on Badlands National Park here.

 

Badlands is a great park with some amazing views and geological formations. If you’ve never been it’s an incredible destination worth adding to your bucket list.