Visiting Badlands National Park and Custer State Park

When looking to get away from people and spend some time in solitude or with nature, you can’t go wrong with the west side of South Dakota. While i’ve visited South Dakota many times over the years, each time is memorable for different reasons. Some years the hiking stands out yet others the camping. Most times we visit we setup a base camp at Badlands Interior Campground, located right outside Badlands National Park. The campground, which also has a motel i’ve never stayed at, is the closest you can get to the badlands and still have a campfire – no fires are allowed inside the national park or at the official campgrounds. It seems every year we see spectacular lighting storms over the badlands at least a couple nights.

The photos below are from some of my trips over the years and include Needles Highway, Custer State Park, the Badlands, Sylvan Lake and Black Elk Peak. Black Elk Peak is the South Dakota high point.

National Parks in South Dakota: Badlands National Park, Wind Cave National Park, Black Elk Wilderness, Jewel Cave National Monument, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, Missouri National Recreational River, Mount Rushmore National Memorial