Badlands: Notch Trail, Castle & Door

Badlands National Park 60 miles east of Rapid City is the largest protected mixed-grass prairie ecosystem in the United States — and the most dramatically eroded. The buttes, spires, and gorges of the Wall were carved from ancient sea-floor sediments at a rate of one inch per year; the erosion is fast enough to be visible decade to decade and has exposed fossil beds that have produced more rhinoceros and saber-toothed cat specimens than anywhere else on Earth. The Notch Trail is the best active hike in the park: a 1.5-mile round trip that begins as a canyon scramble, climbs a log ladder up a cliff face, and emerges at a notch with the White River Valley spreading into the distance below. The Door/Window Trail in the morning and Castle Trail in the afternoon complete a full active day across different terrain zones of the badlands landscape.