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 Conata Basin 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
Yellow Mounds and Conata Basin0:00 / 0:32
“You're coming up on the Yellow Mounds and Conata Basin overlooks, where mustard-yellow hills sit below purple bands and paler ridges.”
Plays as you drive up to Conata Basin Overlook in the Parkwolf Badlands Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Conata Basin's Ferret Comeback
- Conata Picnic Area and Deer Haven
- What an Oreodont's Teeth Reveal
- Homestead 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 Conata Basin Overlook
A full geologic view from the roadConata Basin Overlook is a roadside viewpoint on SD-240, looking across Conata Basin at the…
Conata Basin Overlook is a roadside viewpoint on SD-240, looking across Conata Basin at the Badlands' layered rock. Keep it as a quick stop for the Yellow Mounds and Interior Paleosol, two of the park's most colorful ancient soils; the view takes in the complete geologic section. A boardwalk leads to a bench and a wayside exhibit about climate change and the landscape. The site is listed as accessible, with parking for cars and buses or RVs.
Why the Yellow Mounds are yellowThe Yellow Mounds are altered Pierre Shale.
The Yellow Mounds are altered Pierre Shale. After the Western Interior Seaway drained north, the exposed shale weathered into soils that were later preserved as paleosols, ancient soils in the rock record. Goethite gives the mounds their mustard color. Across the park, deposition began about 75 million years ago with Pierre Shale and ended about 28 million years ago with the Sharps Formation.
Frame the layers togetherFrom the viewing area, frame the Yellow Mounds and Interior Paleosol across the basin, with…
From the viewing area, frame the Yellow Mounds and Interior Paleosol across the basin, with some of the eroded foreground ridges in the shot. Lower, angled light can bring out their folds; midday light may flatten the colors, and sunrise does not guarantee a stronger display.
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.
