A lone wooden shed stands among fields of wild grasses and yellow blooms as storm clouds gather near Interior, South Dakota, on the outskirts of Badlands National Park. The layered sky hints at an incoming summer storm sweeping across the plains, with the rugged formations of the Badlands visible on the horizon. The muted colors and boarded windows evoke both isolation and endurance, capturing the tension between human settlement and the vast, unpredictable prairie environment.

An approaching storm looms over the rolling grasslands near Interior, South Dakota, at the edge of Badlands National Park. The layered clouds form dramatic bands above the wetland and open prairie, where a small structure and fence line mark the human presence in this otherwise vast and untamed landscape. From this vantage point near the White River, the eroded formations of the Badlands rise faintly in the distance, emphasizing the contrast between the lush foreground and the arid, sculpted terrain beyond.

A dirt road cuts through the rolling prairie of Indian Creek Drive in the western reaches of Badlands National Park, near the small town of Scenic, South Dakota. Storm clouds build over the mixed-grass plains, casting dramatic light on the green hills and wildflower fields typical of the park’s early summer landscape. This remote section of the Badlands, less traveled than the main loop road, reveals the quieter beauty of the park—where erosion-carved ridges and open grasslands merge under a vast and changeable sky.

Sheep Mountain in South Dakota near the Badlands National Park.

A weathered wooden sign marks the rugged entrance to Sheep Mountain in the southern reaches of Badlands National Park, South Dakota. This remote area, surrounded by the sweeping prairies of Buffalo Gap National Grassland, offers one of the park’s most dramatic and less-visited overlooks. The region sits within Oglala Lakota lands, where erosion has sculpted colorful buttes and steep ridges over millions of years. Accessible by an unpaved road, Sheep Mountain remains a quiet, untamed corner of the Badlands, revealing the deep geologic and cultural layers of the Northern Plains.

CS36B off of Highway 240 near the Saddle Pass Trailhead. The trail is a short hike up the Badlands Wall giving views of the White River Valley.

A beautiful rainbow at the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. We camped here and woke up to this during the sunrise.