1 active Badlands alert
- ClosureNotch Trail closed for ladder repairsNotch Trail and all areas within 100 feet of the designated trail are closed; do not enter the closure area.Official details
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Before you go
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Badlands Tour Guide
Your drive to Badlands Wilderness Overlook, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Badlands National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Badlands audio tourRecorded for this place
Badlands Wilderness Overlook0:00 / 0:21
“Up ahead is Badlands Wilderness Overlook, a quick roadside pause where the ridges begin giving way to prairie. Follow the gullies near the overlook out toward the flatter horizon to take in the change.”
Plays as you drive up to Badlands Wilderness Overlook in the Parkwolf Badlands Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Hay Butte Overlook
- How Prairie Protects a Hill
- A Bison’s Second Chew
- Pinnacles Overlook
- 116 audio storiesacross Badlands’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Bison, Bighorn Sheep, Prairie Dog, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 11 trails, 34 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“We recently toured Badlands, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and more! We learned so much from this app as we toured each of these sites. The audio tours are worth the money.”
Guide
More about Badlands Wilderness Overlook
A quick western stopBadlands Wilderness Overlook is a roadside viewpoint on Rim Road in the park’s western Badlands.
Badlands Wilderness Overlook is a roadside viewpoint on Rim Road in the park’s western Badlands. I’d stop if you’re already taking the western drive: it gives you a wide look across the ridges and into the prairie, but it’s a brief roadside pause rather than a destination hike.
Watch the formations thin outThe distinctive change is gradual: the deeply eroded Badlands formations become sparser…
The distinctive change is gradual: the deeply eroded Badlands formations become sparser westward and give way to prairie. Start with the gullies close to the overlook, then follow the terrain toward the flatter horizon; the change across one view is the reason this stop stands out.
Bison sometimes share the roadBison frequent this area, and visitors sometimes see them near the road.
Bison frequent this area, and visitors sometimes see them near the road. Treat that as a bonus to the landscape rather than counting on a sighting.
Frame the whole transitionFor a photo, keep some of the ridged foreground and the flatter prairie beyond it in one wide…
For a photo, keep some of the ridged foreground and the flatter prairie beyond it in one wide frame. That contrast shows what makes this overlook different from a view filled only with eroded formations.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Badlands
760 sightingsBisonMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
1,061 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
906 sightingsPrairie DogMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
333 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
304 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
87 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Badlands. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
