Exploring the Great West: Day 1, Part 2, The Badlands National Park: Hiking Saddle Pass and Driving the Badlands Loop Road

This is a continuation of a travel series to The Great West.  To start at the beginning, go HERE!

On day one of our vacation we returned to the Badlands National Park.  We had already visited for a short time in 2019 but we loved it so much we promised ourselves we would return someday and explore more. We still only had one half day to spend in the Badlands, as the first half of the day was spent just getting there.  But since we had been there before, it turned out a half day was all that was needed.  There were only two trails left we wanted to hike:  Notch Trail (which I covered in last week's post) and Saddle Pass Trail.

Saddle Pass Trail is only a .25 mile round trip trail.  I know that sounds so short, and it is, but it is VERY, VERY STEEP and STRENUOUS.  This trail is marked as strenuous on the park trail guide.  It is such a steep and slippery trail I found it almost impossible to climb.  I was constantly slipping on the gravel and I don't think I could have even done it at all if my husband wasn't there for me to hold onto.  But, if you can do this trail, I recommend it, because the views are spectacular!  

There's this cute bridge right by the parking lot that leads to the trail.  Because of the steepness and the slippy gravel, it is not recommended hiking this trail after a rain (does it ever really rain in the Badlands though?)

This short trail climbs up the Badlands Wall to a view over the White River Valley.  

Like most of the Badlands, there isn't much shade so when I found a shady spot, I stopped to rest awhile.

Once you reach the top, you get the stunning views of the White River Valley.  Here you can connect to either the Castle or Medicine Root Loop Trail (Those are 10 miles and 4 miles trails, so we skipped those.  Plus, they just go through the flat prairies of the valley. Nothing too exciting except cactus and rattle snakes) or go back the way you came.

Before we made the decent back down, we spent quite a bit of time up on top just exploring.

Hubby even went rock climbing to capture me in the middle of the photo below.  That is his shadow in the picture.  Isn't that cool?

You can see the parking lot and the steep trail you climbed to get up this high.

It was really fun just wandering around up on the top butte.  However, the descent down was not fun.  I wanted to just get down on my butt and slide down, but hubby wouldn't let me cause he said I'd ruin my clothes.  The only way then I could make it down was if he went ahead of me, and I put my hands on his shoulders, and allowed myself just to slide and crash right into him.  His bulky frame never wavered when I would crash right into him.  You would have thought I would have knocked him down, but he stayed solid.  I couldn't believe they didn't have any type of chain or hand rail to hang on to, but hubby said the rocks were too unstable and a chain or railing would have just pulled right out.

Eventually we made it safely down and I was quite relieved.  Now it was time to just get back in the car and enjoy the Badlands scenic loop road on the way out of the park.

There are not anymore trails after this point, just plenty of parking lots and pull overs to enjoy all these spectacular scenic views.

This would be a great road to take Grandma on, children, or anyone who may enjoy beautiful views but can't hike or doesn't enjoy hiking.  

This stop told the story of a war between the Native Americans and the military in this area.

We were at this part of the park at dusk, so we saw a lot of wildlife.  I highly recommend you drive this road in the late afternoon/early evening, right before the sun sets, because you will not only get to see gorgeous sunsets, but you will see lots of animals out feeding for the night.

My favorite part of this scenic road was Yellow Mounds.  Oh my, I felt I was in a scene from "Lord of the Rings" when I was in this area of the park.  The color seemed so magical I expected to see a hobbit pop out.

"These strangely colored mounds are the result of an ancient sea draining away and the chemicals from decaying plants turning the soil yellow." (source)

Oh, such beauty, every where I looked!  

And just as reached the end of the scenic road, and we were about to exit the park, we saw our very first buffalo of the trip.  We were so excited!  Little did I know that by the time this trip would be over, I would have seen hundreds of buffalo.  

I hope you enjoyed my return visit to the Badlands.  Next week, I will back with another South Dakota adventure at Bear Butte State Park.  It was one of the most thrilling hikes of my life!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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Exploring the Great West: Day 1, Part 1, The Badlands National Park: Hiking Notch Trail

I am so excited to begin a new travel series, and this one will be a LONG one, because we crammed so much into our five day fall vacation out west!  In five days, we visited The Badlands, Spearfish Canyon, Devil's Tower National Monument, Bear Butte State Park (where we took one of the best hikes in my life!), Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and Medora, North Dakota.  

Now in 2019 two of these places I had been to before:   The Badlands (read more about my first visit to the Badlands HERE) and Spearfish Canyon (read about the hikes we took in Spearfish Canyon during our first visit HERE and HERE).  However, there were a few hikes we didn't get to do at these two places when we were there the first time, so we always planned to come back another time....and another time finally arrived!

The last time we were in the Badlands, we spent most of our time on the north end and we never made it to the Visitor Center.  As we drove farther into the park to exit out the other side to Wall, South Dakota, the views got more and more beautiful.  But we were short on time, so all I could do was look out the window and drool.  I said to my hubby "I want to come back someday, and spend more time at the south end!"   So on our first day of vacation, that is exactly what we did.

We first stopped at the visitor's center to pick up a trail map.  After looking at the map, we realized we had actually hiked a lot of the shorter trails the last time we here, and there were only two trails we really wanted to hit on this second trip.

We decided to hike "Notch Trail" and "Saddle Pass".  I will cover "Notch Trail" in this week's post, and next week I will show the other trail plus the scenic views on the "Badlands Loop Road".

"Notch Trail" is 1.5 mile round trip trail described as "Moderate to Strenuous".  I think it's actually a super easy trail HOWEVER the "Moderate to Strenuous" part is because you have to climb the "Ladder" pictured below.  The trail is not recommended for anyone with a fear of heights.  Once you reach the top of the ladder, you follow a ledge to the "Notch" where you are rewarded with a dramatic view of the White River Valley.  There are some drop offs you have to keep an eye out for on this trail. 

The worst part of climbing the ladder is waiting your turn.  If someone is at the top, and wants to come down, you have to wait.  Some people can be super, super slow and you could be waiting a long time. That is what happened to us, so we never climbed "Up" the ladder.  We found an alternative way up the side, which I think was much easier.  We did take the ladder back "down" though, and I will talk more about that at the end of the post.

Once you reach the top, the rest of the trail is super easy and flat, but you do need to watch for drop offs as mentioned above.

This is the "Notch".  It's like a very large window in-between rock formations and you get to see this amazing view.

Here I am standing to the closest rock formation to the left of the "Notch".

We really enjoyed all the beautiful and interesting formations on this hike.

There was some type of gully where it looked like overflow water runs through.  This trail is considered "treacherous" during or after heavy rains.  I could see why, as the water probably rushes through this gully I'm standing above in the photo below.  We did get off the trail and climb down into the gully.  It was so interesting.

Well, what comes up must go down.  We could have taken the same off-trail path to go down, but we really wanted to try the ladder.  Even though I'm TERRIFIED of heights, I really wanted to try it and test myself.  I was perfectly fine when I first started over the edge, but around the time I got to the most straight up part of the ladder, I did have a brief panic attack.  The ladder isn't entirely bolted into the rock, and does shake and move a bit.  I had to talk myself out of going into a full mode panic and keep moving down.  I was so proud of myself, but apparently I embarrassed my husband by how slow I was.  I certainly didn't feel I was moving slow.  But he said everyone was watching and he said I was as bad as the other lady who we got impatient with climbing up.  Whatever.  I did it.  I moved as quickly as I could to not hold up the line.  I did my best and that's all I can do.

When I got off the ladder and started walking I had the oddest sensation in my upper thigh.  I had never experienced that type of pain before, and couldn't recall a moment on the ladder when it might have happened.  It made me wonder if I tensed up during the panic attack and that caused a muscle spasm.  I don't know, but the entire week I had pain in that thigh and I had to hike all week long with that pain.  That was the only big bummer we had on our vacation.  I really wasn't counting on getting injured on Day One of our vacation.  

So what about you?  Would you have climbed up this ladder with ease?  I'd love to hear from you!

I will be back next week with part two of The Badlands.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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Our Fall Vacation to South Dakota: Day 1: The Badlands National Park

 Today begins a new travel series of a vacation I took with my husband to South Dakota back in September.  Even though South Dakota is only a few hours away from my home, I had never been there before.  But after one visit, I can't wait to go back;  especially to the Badlands.  We did not get to spend near enough time there.  It was basically just a pit stop on our way to our hotel for the night in Rapid City.  But what we did see took my breath away, and I made my husband promise me we'd be back next summer/fall to explore it more.

The Badlands are absolutely HUGE! It consists of three units totaling more than 240,000 acres!!!  The North Unit is the most well known and the most easily explored area.  It includes a Badlands Loop Road with scenic overlooks and trail heads.  We only had time to take part of this loop and get out of the car for a few short hikes.

The Badlands are well-known for their rattlesnakes.  We saw these signs everywhere.  We mostly stayed on or near the paths, and we never saw or heard any snakes.  Thank goodness!

If you enter the Badlands from the north, the first scenic overlook is The Big Badlands Overlook.  Wow!  When you grow up in Wisconsin,  the land of dense pine forests, to see a landscape like this you feel like you're on another planet.  I could not believe this was only eight hours from my house in the woods!  How is this possible?

My husband was crazy brave and walked off the path and onto the pinnacles.  I played it safe, and stuck to the path.  Especially after seeing the rattlesnake signs.

The barren landscape as far as the eye could see combined with the beauty of the colorful sand and stone formations was just jaw dropping.

If you're looking at this landscape and wondering what in the world do you do in this national park, my answer is "Lots!".  Like any national park, it is loaded with hiking trails of all levels of difficulties.  Due to time constraints, we stuck with the shorter hikes/scenic overlooks that were within a few feet from our car or were a mile or less.  If you don't like to hike, you don't need to.  Just sit back in your car and drool!  You can take the loop and see sights you've never seen before!  You might even get lucky and see some wildlife.  We saw a coyote and a bighorn sheep, but I read they have bison as well.

We had some type of biting invisible bug biting us when we first stopped and got out of the car.  But after we sprayed ourselves with bug spray, they left us alone.  I have no idea what type of bug it was; nothing we have in Wisconsin that's for sure.  So if you visit the Badlands, bring some bug spray!

 You see such different landscapes in the Badlands.  This was an area where we did get off the beaten path a bit and walked around.  My husband even climbed up some of the formations.  When I got back to my hotel that night I noticed that my feet and legs were covered with white dust!

Every time we stopped, the formations or landscape seemed a little different than the previous stop.

Our final stop was a mix of barren desert landscape and forest.  It was our favorite hike in the park (although we didn't do much, so that's bound to change when we go back and explore more!).  It is called the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail.  It is a moderate 0.5 mile loop trail that follows boardwalks and climbs stairs through a juniper forest perched along the Badlands Wall.  It climbs approximately 200 feet in elevation.

There are some gorgeous panoramic views on this trail.

We were blessed to see a Native American arrive with his son to perform a ceremonial dance.  We did ask their permission to watch and photograph.  The little boy was SO CUTE!

 I appreciated the well-maintained trail.

I loved the mix of evergreens and desert.  I read that at certain times of the year a small pond exists in this area that attracts wildlife.  Perhaps that is why this area is so green too!

 It was with great regret and sadness I had to leave this place so soon!  As we exited the park on the opposite side, the views seemed to get better and better, but we had no time to stop the car and take pictures.  I was actually depressed about it and I must admit it put a slight damper on the rest of my vacation because I felt like I missed out.  My husband kept reassuring me though that we would go back...so I'm holding him to it!

So what about you.  Have you ever been to the Badlands?  What do you think of this unique landscape?  Is this someplace you'd like to visit?  I'd love to hear from you.

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