Small group · 6 days
Black Hills of South Dakota
- Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
- Small group, 2–14
$3,119from / person
Destination
Badlands National Park
With its unusual and colorful rock formations, the Badlands are a unique sight to see. Its dramatic landscapes span layered and colorful rock formations, steep canyons, and towering spires. These striking geologic deposits contain one of the world’s richest fossil beds.
With breathtaking sunsets, Badlands National Park will not disappoint. Embark on our tour of the Black Hills of South Dakota and experience these fascinating rock formations.
Badlands National Park in photographs
Trips that go here
Planning a trip to Badlands National Park
The Badlands are eroding fast — around an inch a year — and everything visible here is a cross-section of that: banded rock laid down as seabed and floodplain, cut into ridges and spires by water that had nowhere to soak away.
The Badlands Loop Road runs about thirty miles through the North Unit with overlooks the whole way, and it can be driven in an hour or spent on all day. The Sage Creek Rim Road, unpaved and further west, is where the bison and bighorn sheep are, and it is the quieter half of the park by a long way.
This is also one of the richest fossil beds in the world — the rock holds late Eocene and Oligocene mammals, and the park runs an active fossil preparation lab in season.
Weather is the planning constraint. Summer afternoons routinely pass 100°F with no shade anywhere on the formations, and thunderstorms build quickly. It is about an hour east of Rapid City, which puts it in the same trip as the Black Hills.