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
Overview
About Bigfoot Pass Overlook
Why stop
- A broad panorama beside an important Lakota history.
Heads up
- Other overlooks may offer a more dramatic view.
Bigfoot Pass Overlook is a roadside viewpoint and picnic stop above the Badlands' banded ridges. It pairs a broad panorama with a consequential piece of Lakota history. The view is a good reason to pause, but the story attached to the route is what makes this stop distinct.
Parkwolf’s verdictWhy stop hereMap
Where it is
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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 Bigfoot Pass 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
Big Foot Pass Overlook0:00 / 0:32
“You're nearing Big Foot Pass Overlook, a roadside view across banded buttes and deep gullies. The name connects this landscape to Chief Spotted Elk, also known as Big Foot.”
Plays as you drive up to Bigfoot Pass Overlook in the Parkwolf Badlands Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Panorama Point Overlook
- White River Valley Overlook
- The Horn That Sheds Its Cover
- Prairie Wind 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 Bigfoot Pass Overlook
What the view showsLook across pale, red-banded buttes and deep gullies toward the open prairie.
Look across pale, red-banded buttes and deep gullies toward the open prairie. For a photo, keep a nearer ridge in the foreground and the flat horizon beyond it; that shows how the broken formations rise out of the plains.
A route through a hard historyThe pass is named for Chief Spotted Elk, also known as Big Foot.
The pass is named for Chief Spotted Elk, also known as Big Foot. After Sitting Bull was killed on December 15, 1890, about 200 Hunkpapa Lakota left to join Spotted Elk and his Miniconjou band at the Cheyenne Reservation. On December 23, the group set out for Pine Ridge seeking refuge with Chief Red Cloud. Five days later, the U.S. 7th Cavalry met them and escorted them to Wounded Knee Creek. On December 29, soldiers massacred an estimated 150 to 300 Lakota men, women and children there. The overlook marks part of Spotted Elk's route, so give this stop a quiet moment beyond the view.
Make it a picnic stopThere are parking spaces for cars and buses or RVs, shaded picnic tables, a shelter and a…
There are parking spaces for cars and buses or RVs, shaded picnic tables, a shelter and a restroom. Bring food: Cedar Pass Lodge, by Ben Reifel Visitor Center, is the park's only place to buy meals and snacks.
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.
