The Badlands is an insane landscape of buttes and pinnacles in South Dakota. The formations are marked with bands of sediment and dramatically eroded by wind and rain. It was named the Badlands by French traders who called it “a bad land to travel.”

The National Park encompasses almost 380 square miles of land. It was authorized as a national monument in 1929 and subsequently designated as a national park in 1978.¹ In addition to amazing stone formations—some of which reminded me of the cliffs and stupas of Mustang—the park contains bison, bighorn sheep, and rabies-carrying prairie dogs, among other critters. (Don’t try to pet the prairie dogs.)

1. The Sioux and their ancestors had lived in the Badlands for about 11,000 years, and in 1868, the United States signed the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie with the Sioux, assuring them that the Badlands and other parts of the Dakota Territory would “absolutely” remain Sioux land exclusively. You’ll never guess what happened next. ↩︎