Our One-Day Adventure in the Badlands

Today was easily our favorite outing in South Dakota! If you are in the Rapid City area and only have time for one sight, we would recommend the Badlands. And while you could spend days here enjoying its beauty, it's completely doable as a one-day adventure, which is what we did. 

Ben Reifel Visitor Center

Like most parks, we started at the visitor center. There are two visiter centers, but Ben Reifel is the main facility. We would definitely recommend this visitor center for families. In addition to having park rangers to talk with, there was a small museum exhibit to learn more about the Badlands and their geographical structures, a fossil preparation lab, and, of course, a gift shop. 

We've made it a habit to stop at visitor centers when attractions have one. When it comes to visiting parks, it's always good to start with talking with the park rangers for advise. We got some advise on which trails to try and which overlooks to check out. One of the best tips was how to pick an overlook to see for a sunset. The map that they share actually took that into consideration, and you can tell which overlooks are facing the west. Once we felt more informed, we head out to start our first hike.

Cliff Shelf Nature Trail

• Distance: 0.5 miles loop
• Difficulty: Moderate (due to stairs)
• Duration: 1 hour
• Parking: Lot at start of trail
• Note: No pets allowed on hiking trail.

We kind of stumbled onto this trail. We had actually just stopped in the parking lot to get some photos, and then we saw the trail. Since we liked the view from the parking lot, we figured the trial would be even better.

The trail itself is both boardwalk and dirt trail. There's also a stair case on one side of the loop, making the trail a little more strenuous than easy. But since it's a loop, you could avoid the stair case by walking on the other side of the trail. 

The hike was very pleasant, and there are several benches to rest at along the way if you need to. We chose to eat our packed lunch at the top of the loop, where we could enjoy the view. It was definitely a great way to start the day!

Notch Trail

• Distance: 1.5 miles out and back
• Difficulty: Moderate to strenuous
• Duration: 1-2 hours
• Parking: Lot at start of trail
• Note: No pets allowed on hiking trail.

Before we traveled to the Badlands, we did some research on the hiking trails. And the overall opinion is that the Notch Trail was one of the best options. In fact, All Trails ranks it as the #1 out of 10 trails for the Badlands. Once we saw the views, we understood why. 

The path starts quite easy and flat. You'll probably spend most of this part of the hike looking up at all the rocks towering above you. The photos of these white rocks cannot do it justice. 

Then you get to the part that makes this trail strenuous: the ladder. This rope ladder requires only the most committed to climb it. It flaps around as you climb, and you usually have to climb with a small crowd watching you as they wait for their turn. While it didn't scare all hikers away, we did witness some turn around and head back after failing to climb it. Piece of advise: wearing good hiking shoes for this one.

Once you make it to the top of the ladder, you'll start to see some gorgeous views. You'll want to head to the right, where you'll be climbing along the rocks with little to no trail markers. There are several parts of the trail where you'll be glad to have those sturdy hiking shoes!

There are two different overlooks to watch out for. Again, the trail is not marked well, so you'll have to use your hiking instincts or just follow the other hikers. Both overlooks have no guardrails or handles, so those who are wary of heights, beware. Plus, the wind is mighty strong up there, too, so hold onto your hats. But if you can brave it, it's worth it! 

Once you've seen the two overlooks, you'll start to head back the way you came. And just to warn you, going down the ladder is much worse than going up!

Door Trail

• Distance: 0.25 of marked trail + 0.5 miles out and back
• Difficulty: Easy
• Duration: 0.5 - 1 hours
• Parking: Lot at start of trail
• Note: No pets allowed on hiking trail.

The parking lot for the Notch Trail is also the parking lot for three other trails: Castle Trail, Window Trail, and Door Trail. Since the Door Trail said it was short, we decided to try that one. 

This trail has two parts. The first part is super easy as it is a quarter-mile boardwalk. The second part is through the break in the Badlands Wall, called "the door," and the maintained trail ends, allowing you to walk about the rock formations. At this point, we were ready to do the driving portion of this trip, so we headed back to the truck. But if you enjoy more freedom with your exploration, this is a great hike for that!

Loop Road (Highway 240)

After hiking for the past several hours, we were ready to see the Badlands from the comfort of our truck, and the Loop Road was perfect for just that. To get to the Loop Road, we had to backtrack a little, back towards the visitor center. 

The Loop Road is a two-lane winding, paved road with 12 overlooks, where you can park and see multiple angles of the Badlands. We mostly went with the flow and just picked overlooks that sparked our interest as we were driving. These are the three overlooks we stopped at: 

• White River Valley Overlook
• Panorama Point Overlook
• Conata Basin Overlook

Be sure to stay alert while on the Loop Road because wildlife is common along the road, which we witnessed firsthand with some rams holding up traffic!

Wall Drug

At this point, we decided we wanted to grab a quick dinner at Wall Drug, which is about 10 minutes away from the parks exit, with the hope of returning to the park in time to see the sunset. 

If you've ever traveled near this part of the country, you've undoubtably seen one of their obscure and eccentric billboards, advertising anything from their free water and 5 cents coffee to leather goods or art. Since we were close, we figured now is as good as ever to check it out. 

Unfortunately, we were a little disappointed. Wall Drug advertises as being open until 7:00 p.m. We had gotten there just a little after 6:00, hoping to walk around and get a quick bite to eat. But what we hadn't realized is that Wall Drug is like a mall with multiple stores inside, most of which had closed or were closing as we arrived, including the diner. So we walked around for 15 minutes just to see what's what before deciding to just grab a quick meal from Dairy Queen down the road and head back to the Badlands.

This location, in theory, would be great for a quick stop for food during a day at the Badlands. So if you're better planners than us, we would recommend stopping here for dinner, just make sure you're earlier than 6:00 p.m.

Sunset at Pinnacle Overlook

Pinnacle Overlook was one of the overlooks near the road returning to the park from Wall Drug. Based on the rangers advise, it was one the west-facing overlooks, perfect for sunset views. 

So we closed our evening with some beautiful sunset views before ending our adventure and heading back to the camper.