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If you have not read Day 1 yet I invite you to read the post before this one so you are caught up. We got a good night's sleep in our hotel. I did not have breakfast but based on the reactions coming back up to the room...not so good. We got all of our things together and went to get some gas. We have a full day ahead of us. First we are heading to one of our favorites, Badlands National Park. Then, across I-90 to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site visitor center with a missile silo. Next, Wall Drug, the world's most famous tourist trap. A meal in Rapid City. Finally, heading up to Mount Rushmore to see the monument lit up.
We headed west on I-90 heading towards the Badlands. We crossed into Mountain Time taking us back one hour. It took us a little under two hours to get to exit 131 where we turned south on Highway 240 towards the park. We stopped at the entrance sign for my required picture when entering a national park. To our joy, the park seemed deserted. We stopped at the Big Badlands Overlook, one of my favorite vista points in any national park. The weather was cold and windy with cloud cover. The badlands were beautiful, as they always are. No one else besides us at the overlook made it even better. Something we had not experienced at our previous trips to Badlands NP.
Big Badlands Overlook
After stretching our legs we headed further south to the visitor center. This was the visitor center where I got my beloved national parks passport. I messed up the stamp and it was kind of messed up. I was looking forward to getting a new one. Unfortunately, the ranger had to stamp my passport because of Covid-19. When we walked into the visitor center the ranger said we were the 18th people to walk into the visitor center that day. The gift shop was closed so we could not buy any merchandise. The trail we picked for the day was the Notch Trail. This trail is 1.5 miles long and features a ladder. We got in the car and headed north towards the trailhead. The parking lot has multiple trailheads with three cars in the parking lot.
We began our hike heading south into the cliffs of the badlands. The trail was flat and easy as the white cliffs to the left and right grew taller. We turned a corner and there was the ladder. This ladder starts off rising slowly and approaches vertical as it reaches the top of the ladder. It is held by cables connected by wooden poles. For my family, going up is the easiest part of the ladder. It did not take us long to get up. The view was pretty from the top, but not as commanding as one might think.
We were not on the namesake of the Notch Trail. A notch in the rock, to one side a cliff, the other side being a hill of rock. We followed the trail along the ups and downs of the trail. Some going around rocks as the trail began to get a little more strenuous. We followed the poles with white makers, the trail markings. We arrived at a sign that said “Dangerous Cliff Keep Right”. This made us laugh because to the left was a massive drop, why would we go left? We scramble over some rocks to find ourselves completely surrounded by the eroded hills of the Badlands. From this point we had to scramble over some more rocks and through little notches. This took some time, but we had fun doing it. Finally, we reached the end of the trial. A commanding view of the badlands as they meet and dissolve into the prairie. We could see the tiny town of Interior in the distance as well as the Badlands Loop Trail.
Notch Trail Ladder
Notch Trail End View
After taking a few minutes to take in the scenery and drink some water we started to head back to the trailhead. On the way back we stopped for a minute and stood in silence. This is one of my favorite things to do in a national park. It was completely quiet. Something that is completely rare in our world today. After scrambling on some rocks we arrived back at the ladder. Going down was more challenging. The rungs of the ladder seemed far apart on the vertical section giving us all a good stretch. We took our time with it and made it down without injury. We were all proud of ourselves for trying something new. Our trail was now flat and easy as we made our way back to the parking lot to head to our next destination. Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, just across I-90. See Day 2 ⅔ for the next part.
We really enjoyed our time in this park. It was the most fun we have had in the Badlands. The Notch Trail was a fun challenge for us. Hope you enjoyed this article. Be sure to head to the next part for more of our Black Hills adventure.
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