Badlands National Park

There are portions of Death Valley and the Petrified Forest that are very much like the Badlands but those two are part of desert landscapes. The Badlands exist in the midst of a great mixed-grass prairie, part of the Great Plains. This "transition" grass is protected here as one of the largest and last examples of this type of prairie.

The city of Wall, SD gets its name from the fact that it sits on top of the north "wall" that defines this heavily eroded area.

Roadway at Top of "Wall"

Erosion here is swift and scientists estimate that it will all be gone in about 500,000 short geologic years. In the meantime, despite its formidable appearance, this land is no problem for some animals.

Roadway Through the Depths of the Badlands

The Big Horn sheep is Nevada's state animal but I have yet to see one in the 12 years I've lived here. So it was a great and powerful surprise to see a male and two females making there way calmly near the road on the precipice of the "wall."

The southern unit of Badlands National Park is mainly on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the site of the last of the Ghost Dances and the Sand Creek Massacre in 1890 that marked the end of the Indian Wars.