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 Hay Butte Overlook
Why stop
- Wide views across the Sage Creek Wilderness
- A wayside panel tells an unusual homesteading story
Heads up
- Access is on a rough, dusty gravel road
Map
Where it is
Loading the Badlands map
Full mapPlan your stop
Before you go
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Badlands Tour Guide
Your drive to Hay Butte 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
Hay Butte Overlook0:00 / 0:29
“Hay Butte Overlook is coming up, with a view across eroded ridges to long, grass-capped tables. The hay in the name has a very practical story.”
Plays as you drive up to Hay Butte Overlook in the Parkwolf Badlands Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Badlands Wilderness Overlook
- How Prairie Protects a Hill
- Pinnacles Overlook
- Ancient Hunters 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 Hay Butte Overlook
A quick stop above Sage CreekHay Butte Overlook is a roadside viewpoint on Sagecreek Rim Road, looking over badlands…
Hay Butte Overlook is a roadside viewpoint on Sagecreek Rim Road, looking over badlands formations and the grass-capped tables of Sage Creek Wilderness. It is worth a pull-in for the wide view and the small wayside exhibit; the lot holds about a dozen vehicles. A few minutes on worn paths beyond the lot can open another angle, though the ground is loose and rocky.
Read the landscapeLook across the eroded ridges toward long, grass-capped Hay Butte.
Look across the eroded ridges toward long, grass-capped Hay Butte. Bison and bighorn sheep frequent this area and may come close to the road, so pause and scan the open slopes. For a broader photo, step just beyond the lot on a worn path and frame the layered ridges with a grassy table along the skyline.
How Hay Butte got its nameHomesteaders cut hay on the high, steep-sided buttes.
Homesteaders cut hay on the high, steep-sided buttes. They took a mower apart to get it onto the table, rebuilt it there, then cut and baled the grass and lowered the bales by cable to the prairie. Today bighorn sheep and deer feed on those grassy tops; bison do not reach them.
The road is part of the stopSagecreek Rim Road is gravel, and visitors repeatedly describe it as dusty and bumpy with loose…
Sagecreek Rim Road is gravel, and visitors repeatedly describe it as dusty and bumpy with loose rock. Expect a rougher ride than on the paved park road. This is a worthwhile detour if you have time for a broad view and are comfortable with gravel.
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.
