2017-01-14 04:35:44
A TIMELESS LAND OF WIND, SKY & ROCK Badlands National Park There’s a fascination with landscapes composed only from the starkest elements of nature. They speak to the fundamentals of our planet: wind, rock and sky. Ready to deepen your appreciation of the very essence of nature? Take a drive through the Badlands. It’s desolation at its truest, where you can look for miles and see no sign of civilization. Disconcerting, maybe, but the meadowlark piping in the morning cool and the darting pronghorns seem company enough. There are no obstructions to mar the horizon. And the land unfolds unceasingly until it meets the sky. It is a land close to the sun, replete with some of nature’s finest forms. The Badlands will sneak up on you. Even after you enter the gateway to Badlands National Park, the monotonous grasslands of the High Plains seem to continue. Stop at the very first scenic overlook you encounter and get out of your car. In a matter of inches, the ocean of prairie transforms into a vast and jumbled wilderness of impenetrable Badlands. Visually, the Badlands are most picturesque early or late in the day when deep shadows define their forms. At first, neither eye nor mind can comprehend because the visual images are totally foreign to any past experiences. If you are thoroughly smitten by the Badlands, hike the Saddle Pass Trail or the Castle Trail. The Fossil Exhibit Trail, a National Scenic Trail, is one of the most heavily used of all park facilities and gives visitors a glimpse into the park’s distant past. SAGE CREEK AREA For more high adventure, strike out into the 64,000- acre Sage Creek Wilderness Area. You may hike just about anywhere in the park, but you must keep your vehicle on the road and leave rocks, animals, and plants as you find them. In spite of all this, the marvels of Badlands topography are not the region’s only claim to fame. It is likely to see eagles and turkey vultures, deer and antelope, and sometimes a wily coyote. On the western end of the park, Sage Creek Road leads you right into the midst of the biggest prairie dog town you’ve ever seen. In the basin, you can usually spot some bison too. FOSSIL BEDS Badlands National Park also preserves the world’s greatest fossil beds of animals from the Oligocene Epoch of the Age of Mammals. In prehistory, the area was once much wetter than today, and supported incredible numbers of saber-toothed cats, miniature camels and horses, and even gigantic rhinoceros-like beasts called the titanotheres. Collecting by visitors became illegal when the area gained national park status in 1939. Prehistoric bones are still being uncovered today by park officials, many of them first reported by park visitors. If you do spot something that looks like a fossil, examine it as much as you want, but leave it as you found it and report it to a ranger at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center at Cedar Pass. VISITOR CENTER At the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, you can sit back and relax in the 100-seat theater to watch an impressive, professional 22-minute film. Many of the kid-friendly educational exhibits feature interactive components with increasingly difficult skill levels. Colorful photos and lifesize models illustrate the geology and paleontology of the Badlands. Badlands National Park 1 PARK FACILITIES Cedar Pass Lodge is home to a dining facility and a gift shop specializing in Oglala Sioux Indian crafts. Cabins are available for overnight stays, including a number of “green” cabins. The adjacent Cedar Pass Campground offers both primitive and electric sites, along with running water, flush toilets, and a dump station. Visitors can also stay at the Sage Creek Campground—a primitive site with vault toilets and no water. SOUTH UNIT Since 1976, the National Park Service and the Oglala Sioux Tribe have partnered in managing Badlands National Park. Today, plans are almost complete to establish the 133,000 acres of the park’s South Unit as the nation’s first tribal national park. If the U.S. Congress agrees, visitors will soon have expanded access and opportunities across this rugged wilderness area. More information about the South Unit is available to tourists during the summer season at the White River Visitor Center, located 20 miles south of Scenic on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Call (605) 455-2878455-2878) for information.
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