The Badlands earned their name. The landscape looks like another planet - sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires rising out of the surrounding prairie. The colors change with the light throughout the day, from soft pastels at dawn to blazing oranges at sunset. It's one of those parks that photos genuinely cannot prepare you for.
ModerateThe longest maintained trail in the Badlands, combining the Castle Trail with the Medicine Root Loop for a route through prairie grasslands and alongside towering erosion formations. Flat but exposed - it feels like hiking on Mars.