Badlands National Park: This week's National Park Getaway
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Contact: Jennie Albrinck, 605-433-5240 Contact: Elise Cleva, 202-208-6843
Wall, S.D. – This week's National Park Getaway was once considered a "bad land" by early settlers intent on farming. To present-day residents, visitors, and even wildlife, Badlands National Park is a place of beauty, serenity and refuge. From the moment visitors enter the park, they enter a landscape of incredible natural beauty where 500,000 years of erosion have created fantastic shapes in the soft rock. The Badlands Loop Road winds through a maze of canyons, buttes and spires, with several trails and scenic overlooks. Past these features is the wilderness area, a wind-swept prairie that is home to herds of wild bison and bighorn sheep. Visitors are invited to walk as far as they like into this free and serene environment, or drive to wildlife viewing areas including a prairie dog town. Those who stay overnight can enjoy a beautiful sunset, sunrise, and starry night sky. "This is a living landscape that calls to us," said Superintendent Eric J. Brunnemann, "and reminds us of a time when the American frontier was full of promising wilderness. It has an amazing fossil record that tells the story of 65 million years of natural history." With 244,000 acres of land to explore, it is easy to enjoy Badlands National Park for an hour, a day, or a week. And this is just one of several parks in the area, which includes Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, Wind Cave National Park, and Jewel Cave National Monument. To learn more about Badlands, visit the National Park Getaway page, which also features 91 other great destinations. |
Did You Know?
Four species of wildlife have been reintroduced into the Badlands since its establishment as a National Monument in 1939. The black-footed ferret, bighorn sheep, bison, and swift fox, once exterminated from the area's mixed grass prairie, are again thriving in their native habitat.