Badlands National Park (2024)

The Badlands provide some of the most mysterious sights to see in the national park system, from fossilbeds to spired rocks formations.

Located on the edge of our country’s Great Plains in southwestern South Dakota, Badlands NationalPark consists of 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest, protectedmixed-grass prairie in the United States.

Badlands National Park contains one of the world’s richest fossil beds, permitting scientists to studythe evolution of mammal species such as the horse, rhino and saber-toothed cat. From tiny shrews to 2,000-poundbison, the Badlands is home to many species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and butterflies.