The weather in the Badlands is notorious for being very, very hot in the summer – and unpredictable. We lucked out as our journey followed a cool front from Canada that gave us mid- to upper-80s and clear skies. That said, each day in the Midwest holds the possibility of an unexpected thunderstorm rolling through.
Of our two days in Badlands NP, we chose the first to drive the loop through the entire North Unit from the interior entrance on the east side to Sage Creek on the west. Each turn, switchback and pass revealed the vast “wall” of Badlands. Around the Conata Basin Overlook, Ash noticed animals on the razor edge of one of the high bluffs on the north side of the road. The animals turned out to be a small herd of female bighorn sheep and their lambs. Although there wasn’t a proper overlook, I wedged the truck into a slim spot on the shoulder of the road, threw on the hazards and we all climbed out to watch the sheep. Several were traversing the bluffs on a sheer cliff face several hundred feet high. The lambs were reddish while the mothers were darker, with dark horns and white rear ends. Several times, the mother sheep would lower their heads and butt any hesitant lambs to move along the narrow tracks.
We stopped for lunch at Sage Creek Campground, where there were maybe five campsites occupied and few tourists. It was mid-afternoon, but we decided to continue our drive down to the Stronghold Unit, aka South Unit of Badlands NP. That part of the park isn’t visited often and has no paved roads (in fact, only one mapped dirt road). The drive took us through Scenic, South Dakota, a true ghost town that claims 58 inhabitants, and south to Sheep Mountain Table Road. The barely maintained road was deep-rutted and washboard, rattling loose the rear of our four-ton truck on the curves. We saw no other drivers or hikers and heard only the wind through the clover and the buzzing wings of birds swooping to catch bugs in the shadows of the cliffs. About four miles in, the road quickly rose up a treacherous, narrow track of loose rock carved tightly into the south canyon wall. At the upper ridge, we saw thunderclouds darkening the western sky.
If you get to Badlands NP, try to visit Sheep Mountain Table. The drive is beautiful in its desolation – no trailheads, lavatories, pullouts or other people. It’s just you and nature, a very rugged and dangerous nature, and probably a lot of rattlesnakes.
Near the end of the road there is a primitive overlook high above the western valley where we watched a herd of Herefords grazing along a stream. It is the most impressive vista point in the entire park and sadly one few visitors see. We made a decision to continue along the road, which was only single track from this point forward and in very poor condition. There was a sign warning people from continuing unless driving a 4×4 with high clearance. For the next two miles, we were either perched along the edge of a 150’ bluff or buried in wildflowers deeper than the top of our truck.
On the return drive, we saw the Badlands in a different light under a different sky – dark clouds accumulating overhead, deeper shadows. We stopped frequently to walk around the rock formations and absorb the sublime beauty of the earth and sky.
Back at camp after a satisfying day, we ate pasta in the rain and watched “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” with the boys since we’ll be visiting Devil’s Tower in a few days.
