A Complete Guide To Badlands National Park with Kids

We recently spent two days at Badlands National Park as part of our South Dakota detour during our road-trip from the East Coast to Colorado, and we’re so glad we did! This often overlooked National Park offers kid friendly hikes, fun rock formations to climb and lots of animal sightings, making it a great destination for families, especially those with young kids in tow. This guide will tell you everything you need to know if you’re looking to plan your own fun trip to the Badlands which both you and the kids will thank you for!

My favorite part of the trip was the hike that the ladder was on (a.k.a Notch Trail) – H. aged 9

About Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park, located in the southwest corner of South Dakota, has a fascinating geologic and cultural history to tell. The park is made up of the beautifully colored and uniquely shaped canyons, spires, buttes and pinnacles formed from deposits of sedimentary rock that slowly eroded over tens of millions of years. Continued erosion reveals the remains of the park’s ancient inhabitants; although dinosaurs never lived on these lands (it was covered by sea during this time) the area is rich with the 30-33 million year old fossils of ancient rhinoceros, alligators, pigs, saber-tooth cats and many more extinct mammals and marine life.

How Long Do You Need to Visit Badlands National Park

By driving the Loop Road you can get a good overview of the park’s highlights in just a few hours but if you really want to enjoy everything that the park has to offer we recommend planning for at least a day and a half to two day visit.

Best Time to Visit Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so a visit anytime of year is possible. The most pleasant time of year to visit weather-wise is either late spring or early fall, the added bonus of going during these times is that you can avoid the bigger crowds that the summer months bring. If you decide to go in the summer, know that temperatures can reach above 100 F so be prepared with lots of water and sunscreen.

Where To Stay When Visiting Badlands National Park

Badlands is in a pretty remote corner of South Dakota and doesn’t have a big neighboring gateway town like many of the other National Parks do. Rapid City, the second biggest city in South Dakota, is about an hours drive away and has a good variety of lodging options, making it a great option is you are planning to just spend a day in Badlands. If you want to stay in the park itself you have a choice of staying at either the Cedar Pass Lodge Cabins or one of the two campgrounds located in the park.

The other option that keeps you close to the action, is to stay in one of the small towns right outside the park such as Wall or Interior. We loved our stay at the Frontier Cabins in Wall and would definitely recommend this place to anyone traveling with kids. The Cabins are about 8 miles from the Pinnacles Entrance of the park and just a few blocks away from downtown Wall where you can find a few restaurants, grocery store and the famous Wall Drugstore.

We rented a kitchenette cabin which comfortably fit all 6 of us. The cabin had a fun rustic vibe to it but was very clean and had a fully outfitted kitchen including stove-top, refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker, toaster and cooking supplies. Each of the cabins also had a picnic table and grill outside and there was a large communal grill at the center of the property with all the tools you need to BBQ. You’ll also find a fun playground, hot tub and sauna and a fire pit area for s’mores.

What to Do In Badlands National Park

1. Get Oriented at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center

Make a stop at the Visitor Center, located near the middle of the park next to the Cedar Pass Lodge, to get information on the latest park conditions and ask the park rangers any questions you might have. While you’re there, check out some of the exhibits and explore the history of the park and its people, get your National Park passport stamped or browse the bookstore. If your visiting the park between mid-June and late September, make a stop at the Fossil Preparation Lab to watch real-live paleontologists at work.

Visitor Center Hours:

8 a.m. – 4 p.m. (Winter Hours)
8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (mid-April to mid-May) 
7 a.m. – 7 p.m. (Summer Hours)
8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (early September to late October)

The Visitor Center is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.

2. Take in the Views Along the Badlands Loop Road

The Badlands Loop Road is where you’ll find the majority of the park’s visitors but this 31-mile stretch that runs between the park’s Northeast Entrance and the Pinnacles Entrance near Wall is a can’t miss. The 13 viewpoints along the Loop Road give you a good opportunity to stretch your legs and take in the different rock formations and prairies throughout the park.

Traffic can move slowly especially when there is a wildlife sighting along the road so plan for at least 2-3 hours to drive the Loop Road and more if you are going to do some of the hikes along the way. We recommend stopping at all of the viewpoints if you can but if you’re short on time be sure to at least check out:

1. Pinnacles Overlook
2. Yellow Mounds Overlook
3. Conata Basin Overlook
4. Panorama Point
5. Big Badlands Overlook

3. Hike the Park’s Trails

Window & Door Trails

Distance: 0.25 and 1 mile loops
Difficulty: Easy
Recommended Age: 3+

Both of these hikes start from the same parking lot on the northeast side of the park and will take you along a boardwalk to natural breaks in the Badlands Wall for spectacular views of the rock formations. The Door Trail continues on at the end of the boardwalk, have your kids lead the way by following the yellow markers to the outlook at the end of the trail.

Notch Trail

Distance: 1.3 miles round-trip
Difficulty: Moderate
Recommended Age: 6+ (they need to be able to listen well to instructions on this one)

This was by far our favorite hike in the park. Hearing about the ladder makes some people nervous but it wasn’t nearly as steep or long of a climb as I was expecting and shouldn’t be much of a problem for kids with some hiking experience that don’t mind heights. Once you make it past the ladder, and navigate past a few narrow areas along the cliff edge, the rest of the hike is pretty flat with lots of fun rocks for the kids to scramble on.

Fossil Exhibit Trail

Distance: 0.25 mile loop
Difficulty: Easy
Recommended Age: 2+

Learn about the animals who used to roam the Badlands as you stroll along this fully accessible boardwalk trail. This trail is great for young kids who aren’t quite ready for some of the harder hikes, families with strollers or for those who are interested in fossils and animals (just to set expectations, the fossils on the trail are replicas). Our girls also loved climbing on the rock formation around the boardwalk.

Saddle Pass

Distance: 0.7 mile round-trip
Difficulty: Moderate
Recommended Age: 6+

Don’t let the mileage on this one fool you, this 0.7 miles packs quite the punch. The kids will love scrambling up this steep trail that leaves you feeling liking you’re walking on the moon when you reach the top of Saddle Pass. If you’re looking for a little more adventure, climb to the top of the butte on the west side of the pass where you’ll be rewarded with spectacular views of the park. Heading back down is a little trickier because the dust from the rocks does make the trail pretty slippery, so wear good shoes and take it slow.

4. Catch a Glimpse of the Wildlife on the Sage Creek Rim Road

Take a right turn, just inside the Pinnacles Entrance, onto this dirt road for the best chance to see many of the park’s wildlife residents. The road is unpaved but we found it to be well maintained and can be managed by most passenger cars under good conditions (check road conditions with the rangers at the entrance before you go).

Drive slowly and keep your eyes peeled for animals; on our drive we saw a big group of prong horned sheep hopping around on the rocks, a couple of grazing big horn sheep, a giant herd of bison in the distance and one lone bison just hanging out near the side of the road. Make a stop at Robert’s Prairie Dog Town to watch the prairie dogs pop in and out of their burrows and interact with their friends across the prairie with their “barks”.

5. Earn a Junior Ranger Badge

Stop by the visitor center to pick up a Junior Ranger book that includes fun activities about the park for the kids to complete (they have one for kids under 5 and one for kids aged 5-12). Once you finish all of the activities in the book plus watch the park movie or join a ranger-led program, go back to the visitor center to trade in your activity book for your very own Junior Ranger Badge.

Tips To Make Your Visit to Badlands a Success

• If you are visiting in the summer months, bring along lots of water, sunscreen and a hat, it often gets into the 90s during the day and there is very little shade to be found in the park.
• The only place in the park to buy food and drinks is at the Cedar Pass Lodge (they offer both a sit-down restaurant and snacks). If you plan on bringing your own food, there are picnic tables available at several overlooks along the Badlands Loop Road to enjoy your meal.
• There are only 3 stops with bathrooms along the Badlands Loop Road so plan your pee breaks wisely.
• Keep your eyes and ears peeled for the poisonous prairie rattlesnakes that call the Badlands home especially when walking near high grass and rocky areas.
• The Badlands rocks are soft and crumbly making for gravelly (i.e. slippery) trails, wear hiking boots with a good grip, especially if you are doing any of the hikes that don’t have a boardwalk.
• Stay at least 100 feet away from any wildlife and don’t feed them.