Road Trip Home: Day 4
After surviving the stormy night in our tent, we awoke in our campground surrounded by the jagged rock formations (buttes) of Badlands. What a gorgeous place to camp.
We spent this whole day in Badlands doing almost all of the hiking trails. The buttes are all formed from years and years of erosion from water and wind – constantly changing and leaving history of the past.
The Window trail offered a natural window in the Badlands wall to view a canyon of buttes.
On the Door trail, we walked out onto the rocks to get a panoramic view surrounded by them.
At Notch trail, we meandered through a canyon and climbed a log ladder to get a dramatic view of the White River Valley. This hike was pretty strenuous but fun as well.
Saddle Pass trail was another tougher hike but we got to climb up a butte way up high. This is where we saw a rattlesnake coiled up on the side as well.
Badlands actually contains one of the largest collections of mammal fossils in the world, and we got to learn about some during a ranger talk and walk through the Fossil Exhibit trail.
Our last hike was the Medicine Root loop and Castle trail through the grass plains and near the end, we saw a bighorn sheep and a pack of pronghorn antelopes!
Out of all the places we went to during this road trip, Badlands was my favorite. There weren’t that many people there and it was really fun to hike and climb buttes everywhere in the park. Plus, just absolutely breathtaking views and different landscapes all around.
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