PARK VISITOR CENTER HOURS EXTEND

Chief of Resource Education Marianne Mills announces that on Sunday, May 2, 2004, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center of Badlands National Park extend its hours of operation to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days per week. The park movie, Buried Fossils, Living Prairie, is shown on the hour and half hour in the open air porch of the Center.

Badlands National Park is open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The primary visitor center, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, is located at park headquarters in the Cedar Pass area, two miles east of the town of Interior, South Dakota. Entrance fees are collected at the Pinnacles, Interior, and Northeast Entrance Stations. There are no additional fees to attend ranger programs. The Cedar Pass Campground, located 800 meters west of the Visitor Center, is available to campers with a nightly rate of $10 per site per night. Cedar Pass Campground offers sheltered picnic tables, in ground grills, flush toilets, and cold running water. Sage Creek Campground, located 30 miles from park headquarters along the unpaved Sage Creek Road, is a free campground and provides sheltered picnic tables and vault toilets. Campers are reminded that no open fires are permitted in Badlands National Park at any time. Fires must be contained in a grill or stove.

For additional trip planning information, visit the park virtually at http://www.nps.gov/badl The Prairie Preamble, the park's activity guide, is available online at the park's website as a .PDF file and includes regulations, schedules, and resource articles. Printing of the Prairie Preamble is provided by Badlands Natural History Association, the park’s non-profit education partner. An online bookstore is also available at the park’s website.