Another park we were able to visit while based in Custer State Park was Badlands. It is a little more than an hour drive from Custer. It was decidedly different from the Black Hills area. The native tribes called it the “White Hills” initially since it is mostly white and yellowish sandstone compared to the dark green Black Hills, but French explorers/ hunters called it the Bad Lands and that is what stuck. It sticks out of the prairie like the Black Hills but rather than forest, it is extremely dry sandstone. Mostly large fins and pinnacles of crumbling sandstone. Feels like they should have just eroded away in the rain and wind! It is so dry there, you can feel the moisture leaving your lips and eyes!
There is some water in the region – mostly in one river and seasonal streams. You can easily walk among the towers, except it would be extremely easy to get lost. Most of the established trails seemed hard to follow. We did drive to the wetter part of the park and found the ever present prairie dogs, pronghorn and some bison. This park is very cool in that they reintroduced the Black footed Ferret which is one of the most endangered mammals. Because of the extensive prairie dog towns here, the ferrets appear to be thriving. We did not see any since we were there in daylight, but it is another successful story of biological intervention with an endangered species (like the California Condor, and gray wolves). Bald Eagle and Brown pelicans. See….humans can fix human caused messups!
Overall, this was an interesting but one day sort of park. Lots of driving, but mostly it stayed the same. The visitor’s center is pretty basic and all facilities were dry (vault toilets and no sinks). Badlands stands out from the surrounding environment in a dramatic way and is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Somewhat by Wall, SD which is a really weird place. For miles and miles, there are so many billboards about Wall’s Drugstore. It is an old fashioned inside sort of “mall” with little “historical” shops. Some were pretty old but talk about a tourist trap. But yes, we did stop and look around. I don’t remember buying anything!
