backcountry travel learn from other trailblazers

Badlands National Park

By: Nathan Burch
Trip Date: April 1998

I want to tell you about a fantastic place for dayhikes or extended backpacking trips. It's the Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

This place is awesome. Wild buffalo, deer, antelope, and coyotes are just some of the wildlife to see there. And the grassy rolling hills make a beautiful landscape, and the actual "badlands" (although this region is so rugged, it's next to impossible to travel through) are worth the trip.

My girlfriend and I went there in early April of 1998 and we loved it. We camped under a full moon and listened to the coyotes singing their songs, and could hear buffalo softly bellowing in the calmest parts of the nights.

I would strongly urge any one to experience this place.

You can park at the Sage Creek Campground and use a compass to follow buffalo trails into some of the prettiest country. My recommendation for those travelling across the US is to plan a stop at this amazing national treasure.