Badlands National Park, South Dakota

 We had a delightful time at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota and while seeing the beautiful badlands there, we were perplexed as to how the Badlands in South Dakota could be more spectacular.  We arrived in Wall and got Wander set up early in the day and immediately headed over to the park which is only about 6 miles from the town.

Even before we entered the gate, there were many bison milling around in the fields and along the sides of the highway.  After entering, we drove about 1/2 mile and around a curve.  There was a scenic pullout and as we drove into the area we both gasped.  It was unbelievable!  Just miles and miles of hills with dozens of colors glistening in the sunlight!  We were both enthralled, love at first sight.

The 24 mile drive through the park winds through grasslands and badlands.  We had two days to explore and we certainly took advantage of our time.  We drove all the way through the park three times and explored another area on a different drive over.  

This is an excellent national park to see beautiful animals.  During our drives and walks here we saw bison, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, deer, rabbits, prairie dogs and even a few longhorns.  

We decided that we would like to drive into the park to see the sunset and hopefully spot more animals roaming around late in the day.  We packed a picnic dinner and drove up a dirt road, Sage Creek Rim Road, that we had spied earlier in the day.  It is really high and we thought would make a great viewing area for the sunset.  We were not disappointed!

After a while of watching the colorful sky, we decided to drive a few miles to a pull-out called Ancient Hunters Overlook.  As we pulled in we spotted a number of bighorn sheep walked the ridge of the mountains above us.  We watched them for 30 minutes or so while they wandered back and forth along the ridge.  We were hoping to see lots of stars but the sun continues to reflect into the sky for hours here in the plains and we have discovered you have to be quite patient for darkness to actually fall.  As we left Ancient Hunters Overlook and rounded a curve where the beautiful colors of the sunset were still there, we spotted a lone pronghorn standing sentinel over the Badlands.  It was an incredible sight.