Badlands

The Badlands of South Dakota stretch across 244,000 acres of starkly beautiful eroded landscape — jagged spires, layered buttes, and deep gullies carved from ancient sediment over millions of years. The park protects one of the world's richest fossil beds, where prehistoric creatures including three-toed horses and saber-toothed cats once roamed. Vast mixed-grass prairie surrounds the formations, sheltering bison, bighorn sheep, black-footed ferrets, and swift foxes in a wilderness that feels as remote and elemental as any on the continent.