Badlands National Park Itinerary: A Full Week of Adventure

We spent a full week soaking up everything Badlands National Park and the surrounding area has to offer, and wow, what a trip it was. From hiking through otherworldly rock formations to stargazing at the annual Badlands Astronomy Festival, our days were packed with adventure. We mixed in a little small-town charm with a stop in Wall, got our hands dirty rockhounding out in the national grasslands, and even took a step back into Cold War history at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. In this post, I’m sharing our full itinerary along with tips we picked up along the way so you can plan your own unforgettable Badlands getaway.

Day 1: Drive Day and Badlands National Park

We kicked off our Badlands week on a Sunday after driving in from our two night stay in Mitchell, SD (home to the World’s Only Corn Palace!). We did a quick roadside stop along the way at the Dignity of Earth and Sky statue, which was designed to honor the Lakota and Dakota people and overlooks the Missouri River. You can kind of see it from the road, but it’s definitely worth stopping for and seeing up close! The photo doesn’t quite capture the scale- she’s 50 feet tall!

Once we got into camp and set up, we headed right over to the Badlands National Park visitor center. We checked out the exhibits, got my park passport stamp, and picked up a unigrid. Then we were off on our first hikes! First up, we did the Cliff Shelf Trail, then we did the Fossil Trail, which is a short boardwalk trail with interpretive signs about the different fossils found in the Badlands and what used to live here. Then we went across the street to the Castle Trail, which we started on, but then veered off to explore more off-trail. One of our favorite things about Badlands National Park is that they have an Open Hike policy- meaning, that as long as it’s safe to do so, you’re allowed to go off-trail anywhere in the park. Walking off-trail here really felt like we were on another planet, the landscape is so weird!

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Day 2: Monday Storms

We didn’t get out to any trails on Monday because of storms, but we did join a crowd of other campers for an impromptu “storm party” watching them roll in. Our campground had a great view of the storms coming in over the Badlands and it was really cool to watch them in the distance.

Day 3: More Badlands National Park

Tuesday had better weather, so we were back to exploring the National Park. Our campground was literally a mile or less from the park entrance station, so it was super convenient. We started off with the Window and Door Trails, which are both short boardwalk trails with great views- but also lots of crowds! Then we drove to the Burns Overlook. We walked a little off-trail here, but then headed across the street for one of my favorite parts of the trip- prairie dogs! I could have sat there all night watching the prairie dogs, they are so cute and just full of personality.

We did finally say good-bye to the prairie dogs, though, and went home for dinner. After eating, though, we headed back into the park! Like I said, we were so close to the entrance- and that meant we could come and go throughout the day. For our after dinner hike we did the Saddlepass Trail and we were glad we did this in the evening. Not only was it cooler now, but there were no crowds and we had the trail to ourselves. We definitely recommend doing the more popular trails after dinner if you can, every time we went out after 5pm there were way less people.

Day 4: Even More Badlands National Park

Wednesday after work we went back to the Door Trail to hike the extension off of it. This is still a marked trail, but gets off the boardwalk. Walking off-trail in the Badlands really feels like stepping onto another planet. Then we went home for dinner and then back to the park again! After dinner we went to the Notch Trail, which is a super popular trail, so we wanted to save it until evening when it was less busy. It was a little busy when we started, especially at the ladder- but most other people were on their way off their trail. The most famous part of this trail is the ladder, which I actually did ok despite my fear of heights. But soon after the trail narrows around a bend and my legs were shaking too bad to go on. I had Josh go on a little without me, but then needed to get down- so if you have a fear of heights, be wary! We still wanted to explore the park some more, but from the ground, so we went to the prairie across from the visitor center for some off-trail botanizing.

Day 5: Rockhounding in Buffalo Gap National Grassland

Thursday we decided to do something a little different and went to one of the US Forest Service areas after work. We went to the Baja ORV Staging Area which is said to be a good place for rockhounding. We found lots of cool rocks- but we need to do more research now into what we found, and we found a few we want to cut open when we get home. Since this was also an off-road driving area it made me really wish I had my jeep (which is lifted with offroad tires) with us! But we still played around a little with the truck, just cautiously because we only have 2-wheel drive and there was no one around to help if we got stuck.

After dinner we headed into Badlands and went to the White River Overlook. We walked a little off-trail from the overlook and then went across the street for some more prairie botanizing. Unfortunately, this is where I slid down a bank and for the rest of the trip I was scared of falling again. Luckily I had no major injuries, just bruising and soreness, but it was enough to mentally get in the way of exploring later on.

Day 6: First Day of Badlands Astronomy Festival

Josh took off work early Friday so we started off our day back at the visitor for the first activities of AstroFest, which was all weekend long. During the daytime they had some kids activities and telescopes set up to look at the sun. Sadly, it was too cloudy to actually see the sun, so that was a bust. Instead we checked out the Fossil Prep Lab, which we had missed when we went to the visitor center before. This was fun to check out and some of the preparators were working- and it’s pretty mesmerizing to watch.

We knew that we’d be up late this evening for the first AstroFest lecture, so we chilled at camp for a while and worked on booking more of our fall campsites. Then a little before 9pm we went over to the Badlands amphitheater. Tonight’s speaker was Dean Regas, an astronomer who used to have a PBS show and currently hosts an astronomy podcast, and it was a really fun talk. It was pretty basic astronomy stuff, but he’s a great presenter and I really liked his humor. After the talk they had telescopes set up, but it was too cloudy to see much.

Day 7: Minuteman Missile NHS, Wall Drug, Sage Creek Wilderness, and More AstroFest

Saturday was our main day exploring the area outside of the National Park. First up we needed gas, and the Badlands Trading Post just down the road also had a prairie dog town, so we spent some time hanging out and taking photos there. Then we visited another National Park unit- Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. The Minuteman Missile program was part of the US’s Cold War defense strategy that was hidden in plain site across the country. We started at the visitor center to check out the exhibits, then drove to the Delta-01 launch facility. There are tours of the facility, but only 6 people at a time can go on them and tickets sell out months and months in advance. It was still worth seeing from the outside and the National Park Service has a free audio tour that’s worth listening to. The last part of Minuteman Missile NHS is the Delta-09 site, where you can see an actual training missile in its silo. Since this was a training missile, it was never live, but still gives you a look at what a live one would have looked like.

After Minuteman, we visited one of the most iconic South Dakota tourist attractions- Wall Drug. Wall Drug started as a simple drug store back in 1931, and over time grew into a behemoth of a tourist attraction. It was suuuuuper busy here, which was pretty overwhelming, but it was still worth visiting at least once. If it wasn’t so crowded I probably could have spent longer there taking everything in. 

We got lunch in the town of Wall, too, and ended up choosing The Salty Steer. We were so glad we did! We were worried that anything in town would be overpriced tourist-food, but the food here was actually really good. I got the Salty Heifer (2 patties with feta, bacon bits, caramelized onion, peaches, bacon jam, and arugula) and Josh got the Swiss Steer (2 patties with swiss, mushrooms, mushroom sauce, and onion straws) and we did halfsies to each try both. I liked mine best, but that’s also because it’s exactly the flavor profile I love.

After lunch we re-entered Badlands National Park from the Wall entrance station so that we could drive through the Sage Creek Wilderness Area. We saw bison, pronghorn antelopes, and prairie dogs and it was cool to see the variety of landscapes within the park. I think these photos are all labeled correctly- I tried really hard to keep my photos organized, but there were a lot of overlooks!

We went home for dinner and then that evening we were back at the amphitheater for more astronomy! Tonight’s speaker was Savannah from Dark Ranger Telescope Tours, who gave a talk about things That Go Bump in the Night. They had the telescopes set up again for viewing after the talk, but storms were rolling in so they sent everyone home after the talk- we were just glad the storms held off long enough to not end the talk early!

Day 8: Last Day in the Badlands

Sunday we hiked more of Castle Trail. The whole trail is 10 miles round trip, but we hiked to where it connects to Saddle Pass and then turned around. Besides just the great views in general, the other highlight was seeing a porcupine hanging out in the shade! We drove around to more overlooks after that, where we did a mix of just looking and going off-trail.

After dinner we were back in the park for the final night of AstroFest. Tonight’s speaker was Kevin from Dark Ranger Telescope Tours, who gave a talk on black holes. The weather finally cooperated this time and for the the last night of AstroFest we actually got to see things in the telescopes! There were around a dozen scopes set up to view different things in the sky- we saw galaxies, ring nebulas, stars, and all kinds of neat stuff- it was definitely a good end to the festival and our time in the Badlands.

Day 9: Move to Rapid City

Monday we said good-bye to the Badlands and drove 84 to Rapid City for our next week in South Dakota. We stayed at Three Flags RV Park and when we first got in Josh had to do some more work. After work we got groceries and got our first good look at the town. Our Rapid City week recap will be up soon!

Where to Camp Near Badlands National Park with Full Hook-ups

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