Badlands Series (1) : Hiking in the Badlands National Park
5/23/21 shall we start the week with some music and rainbows?! 😀
Here is how Iowan people are desperate about the mountains and rocks: I pretty hiked all the trails in the Badland national park and yet on the first night when I came back from South Dakota, I already booked the campsite in the Rocky Mountains 🙂 Seeking for the origin of the Colorado river is a wish I made long time ago when I saw the Grand Canyon.
Hiking in the badlands is a favorite type of hikes. No trees, a lot of rocks, you can hike pretty much everywhere, and don’t have to stick to the trails. The ranger said that majority of the injuries are ankles, so I did wear my hiking boots but it is broken at the first day 🙂 Then I survived with just sneakers. I see some people used hiking sticks. I don’t think they are necessary. In the summer, it is very hot here, so bring plenty of water.
Notch trail: It is one of my favorite trails. The official trail length is only 1.5 miles, but there is a lot of rocks nearby off-trail that you can climb on. This trail contains a ladder and then a 6-feet wide cliff trail. It can be quite a lot of wait. So I highly recommend that you go there in early mornings or late afternoons. Some travel blogs said, “don’t bring kids”. Kids are just fine if you can be careful.
The ladder:
The cliff-section of the trail:
The views along the trail:
Saddle trail: This is the most difficult trail in the park, but I totally did not prepare it. I went alone and chickened out (haha) in the middle after walking across a “bridge”, where both sides are cliffs. The problem is that this trail is very steep with small stones on the surface. So it is slippery when coming down. I did not see a single person on the trail until I decided to come back. I found two NYC young guys so I head back with them (if they were going up, I probably would’ve successfully hiked), lol.
the beginning of the trail 
trail 
trail 
view on the trail
Castle trail (and the medicine root loop): this is a longest trail in the park. One way is about 6-7 miles. It is also the easiest, not much elevation. You can see badlands and many buttes as well as the prairie landscape. The trailhead is located at the fossil trail area and also the entrance of the park. This trail also connects to the saddle trail.
Trail:
Buttes:
Door/window/cliff nature Trails: all the three trails are located near the entrance of the park. Door trail is a fossil bed, it takes about an hourish to hike but quite fun for beginners. Window trail and part of cliff nature trail is wheel-chair accessible. Window trail can see a giant canyon, and cliff nature trail sees the meadow.
Door trail view: endless badlands with an end of the trail
Window trail view:
Cliff-nature trail:
Badland rocks are dated as old as 60-70 million years, where the South Dakota area is mostly ocean. People have discovered many fossils including the extincted animals like three-toed horse and oreodont. The rocks have many layers and colors. Shale is the oldest layers. The buttes are formed where there is a very hard layer in the rock. The erosion failed to remove that layer but starts to erode away the layers at the lower part of that layer. Even nowadays, it is erode about 1 inch away every year.
