Today is Mother’s Day and I treated myself to a few minutes of catching up on national park posts! It was a good reminder of how grateful I am for my children – and the chance to travel with them!
We arrived in Badlands National Park on August 29, 2023. This was part of our big Yellowstone trip right before Claire was born, which is why (as you can see in the pictures) I’m always behind everyone else. It’s an absolutely incredible park – one of our favorites – and essentially a giant playground for kids.
Badlands is notable for our all-time best hike. I still remember it was called the Notch Trail because it was that good! It featured the fun challenge of climbing a 100-foot ladder and clambering around rock formations. This picture below is the start of the trail, and you can see it’s kind of a dusty path (everything in Badlands is dusty) with chances to dash off to either side and skip around on the rocks. It ends with a gorgeous overlook of the White River.
This ladder was really epic. Those ants at the bottom are actually people. It was quite a climb down.
Having successfully completed the Notch Trail, we explored the rest of the park. We drove the entire loop, stopped at multiple overlooks including Yellow Mounds and Pinnacles, got friendly (at a safe distance) with several bison, and finally ended up at a section of the park where the berries climbed to their hearts’ content.
The three colorful dots in the center of the photo below are Sophia, Zoe, and Eva!
On our way back to Rapid City, we stopped at Ellsworth Air Force Base to see their outdoor airplane “museum.” After Ellsworth we took the children (for the first time!) to IHOP for gluten-free pancakes.
=)
