Badlands National Park Hiking

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Badlands National Park

July 2

From Minneapolis, we headed west to South Dakota to do some Badlands National Park hiking. We drove 500 miles. As usual we made some Roadside America stops along the way.  St. Peter, Minnesota was one stop…and of course we found the pearly gates.

Then onto a short detour in North Mankato, Minnesota to see Tokyo ex-pat Godzilla.

And, boy, there’s lots of farmland through southwest Minnesota.

We made a stop in Mitchell, SD to see the Corn Palace.  We had been there in 2017 but, hey, we were right in the neighborhood…and you can never get too much of the world’s only Corn Palace. Yes, those are corn cob murals.

After a short stop viewing just the outside of the palace, we ventured on to the primitive Sage Creek Campground in Badlands National Park.  This is the campground we had wanted to stay at when we visited Badlands NP in 2017, but we were concerned then that the 10-15 miles of unpaved badlandy road would do some damage to Emilie’s Subaru at the time.  We didn’t want to risk car problems on a X-country road trip, especially in the middle of the Badlands.  It was that experience that inspired us to buy the Jeep we took on this road trip.  So, of course, Sage Creek Campground was a primary destination for us.

Deep into the NP and several miles on dirt roads with very few cars we finally arrived at the isolated campground and luckily scored one of only 22 first-come-first-served free campsites. The campsites here form the perimeter of a large oval shape that encircles a prairie dog town. Prairie dogs everywhere.  There are two primitive toilets at the campground, and a picnic table for each campsite…that’s it.

This campground is known for wildlife wandering through it, and amazing night skies. But it is also very windy as it is vastly open range. We got there around 7:00 p.m. We struggled with the wind when putting up the tent in the wind, but we eventually prevailed.  Once the tent was up, we went for a short hike on one of the several short trails up the grassy hills surrounding the campground situated on Sage Creek. From atop the hill, we could see the campground, and it looked like a band of pioneers circling their wagons.  We caught a beautiful sunset from the trail.

We then headed back to the campsite to talk with our neighbors and enjoy PBJ’s for dinner as it was then around 9:00 P.M. Fortunately, the wind died down a bit in time for sleeping. It was a warm, balmy night. The clouds interfered with stargazing but there were enough breaks to see a very starry sky due to no light pollution from this very remote campground.

July 3

After a fair night’s sleep due in part to people showing up at the campground all night, we were up at 7:00 a.m. It started getting windy again so we had to protect our Coleman stove from the wind while boiling water for our oatmeal and coffee breakfast.

Around 8:30, and after doing all we could to hopefully prevent the tent from being blown away while we were out and about, we headed out towards the Badlands Park Loop Road.  Along the way, we saw lots of bison and mountain goats along the truly majestic scenery.  We noticed that there was much more wildlife viewing this time compared to when we were here in 2017. I don’t think we saw any bison last time. The Badlands National Park hills from the loop road make perhaps some of the most awe-inspiring scenery that we have ever seen.  It alone was worth coming back again.

We took a different route this time though that took us to the very, very small town of Interior on the edge of the park.  There is no delineation between the park and this town. We stopped to pick up ice at the Badlands Grocery there.  Then drove a couple of side streets…after blinking twice we were out Interior and back in the park.

Along the Park Loop Road, we stopped to hike our favorite trail here, the Notch Trail.  It was cooler this time around, it was only in the 90’s this time. The last time we did Badlands National Park hiking it was over 100 degrees. The Notch trail is only 1.5 miles round trip, but it is not for the faint of heart.  We learned from our last time on this hike that the ladder gets very hot, so we brought gloves with us on this trip.  So, glad we got to use them!

CLICK HERE to see our 2017 trip to Badlands National Park where we did more hiking trails. After our Badlands National Park hiking, we were off to Hot Springs, SD to visit the Mammoth Site, a place we regrettably missed when we were in this area in 2017. It was a 2-hour ride to Hot Springs.  The Mammoth Site is a very cool place, as it is actually an enclosed live archeological dig.  It is the site where several mammoths had drowned a few years ago, and their fossilized remains in the spot where they died are on display.

Since we were in the neighborhood, and it was rather hot, we partook in Evans Plunge for a swim in an indoor hot spring-fed pool, and then a shower…both much needed after a very sweaty hike.

We then drove back to the campsite.  Along the way, we stopped at the last possible spot near the campground for beer and milk (for morning cereal). We got the best beer possible amongst the 3 choices…Coors (ugh).

We got back to the campsite around 8:00 P.M. We boiled water for a bagged dehydrated chicken with fettucine alfredo dinner, bought at REI and Walmart. They aren’t bad at all.  After dinner we did another short hike up the hills at the campground. Instead of a sunset though, we watched an awesome lightning storm in the distance.

This night offered much better stargazing as there were fewer clouds.  We drank our two cans of Coors and stargazed.

It was a calm, warm night, which provided for a good night’s sleep.

July 4

Breakfast at the campsite.

While rolling up camp for our departure we saw a bison walking just outside the perimeter of the circular campground. It was a nice treat to see as we left to begin the drive toward Stanley, Idaho and the Sawtooth mountains.

Of course, the drive started with retracing the hour and a half ride through Hot Springs that we just did 12 hours earlier. Oh well, sometimes that’s how a road trip goes.

Next: South Dakota to Stanley, Idaho