Wind Cave National Park
Hot Springs, SD · Black HillsFree
Boxwork, rarely found anywhere else in the world, hangs from the ceilings of Wind Cave in South Dakota and lines many of its walls. In 1903 this became the eighth national park…
Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Canyons & deserts
Badlands National Park
About
About an inch a year wears off the buttes of Badlands National Park, 75 miles east of Rapid City, South Dakota. The park estimates they have another 500,000 to a million years left. In the mid-1800s, 77 of the 84 fossil animal species then known in North America came out of these beds, and paleontologists still prepare fossils in a lab in the park, answering questions while they work. Off-trail hiking is allowed, and the park warns that the formations are easier to climb up than down. The Notch Trail, 1.5 miles round trip, climbs a log ladder and runs along a ledge to a view of the White River Valley; skip it in or after heavy rain, when it turns treacherous.
Highlights
One of the world's richest fossil bedsPaleontologists at work in the fossil labNotch Trail log ladder, 1.5 milesBison and bighorn sheepOff-trail hiking allowedSummer stargazing at Cedar Pass
Related places
Caves
Caves
Canyons & desertsPart of these collections
63 placesThe United States National Parks
All 63, for anyone keeping count, with the famous ones up top and the quieter ones further down.
15 placesBest Dark Sky Stargazing in the US
Where to go when you want the Milky Way instead of a glow on the horizon. Time it for a new moon: a full one washes out the sky even at the darkest of these.