Badlands, and wind cave S. Dakota that bad?
yahoo travel did a recent article on the 5 worst National Parks. Badlands, and Wind Cave were both on the list. As we are planning a trip to S. Dakota in June/July, I was wondering if any of you agree...
Forum Discussion
Here is a suggestion for the Badlands:
Don't just do the paved loop off of I-90 that goes from Exit 131 to Exit 110. This is the most travelled and therefore tends to have the least amount of wildlife. Be sure to do Sage Creek Rim Road (590 - a gravel road)that runs to the west end of the north unit of the park. We did this last fall and this is where we saw all the great wildlife - Buffalo, Big Horn Sheep, Pronghorn Antelope and Mule deer. The only wildlife we saw on the loop road were the Prairie Dogs.
This is not to say that you won't see any wildlife on the loop road, but that was our experience. The loop road has constant cars going either direction, while we saw only a few cars on the Sage Creek Rim Road.
As others have said, the Badlands are worth seeing, but plan for several hours rather than planning for a few days. Certainly not the worst National Park in the system (for me, those would be the 2 acre historic battlefields aka the "cannonball parks")
Don't just do the paved loop off of I-90 that goes from Exit 131 to Exit 110. This is the most travelled and therefore tends to have the least amount of wildlife. Be sure to do Sage Creek Rim Road (590 - a gravel road)that runs to the west end of the north unit of the park. We did this last fall and this is where we saw all the great wildlife - Buffalo, Big Horn Sheep, Pronghorn Antelope and Mule deer. The only wildlife we saw on the loop road were the Prairie Dogs.
This is not to say that you won't see any wildlife on the loop road, but that was our experience. The loop road has constant cars going either direction, while we saw only a few cars on the Sage Creek Rim Road.
As others have said, the Badlands are worth seeing, but plan for several hours rather than planning for a few days. Certainly not the worst National Park in the system (for me, those would be the 2 acre historic battlefields aka the "cannonball parks")
