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 Pinnacles Entrance Sign
Why stop
- A clear, classic photo marking the start of the park drive.
Heads up
- The roadside layby is tiny and can mean waiting for a turn.
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 Pinnacles Entrance Sign, 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 area
How Prairie Protects a Hill0:00 / 0:30
“Some of the park's flat-topped hills still carry a patch of prairie. These are sod tables, and their grass and soil help protect the rock beneath them by soaking up storm rain.”
Plays near Pinnacles Entrance Sign in the Parkwolf Badlands Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Hay Butte Overlook
- Pinnacles Overlook
- Why Bison Roll in the Dirt
- Badlands Wilderness 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 Pinnacles Entrance Sign
A quick arrival photoThe Pinnacles Entrance Sign is a roadside welcome monument beside Highway 240, marking mile 0…
The Pinnacles Entrance Sign is a roadside welcome monument beside Highway 240, marking mile 0 of the Badlands Loop Road. It’s a quick photo stop, not a scenic overlook; stop for the entrance shot if the pull-off has room, and skip it when full.
A tiny laybyA no-fee roadside layby sits beside the sign.
A no-fee roadside layby sits beside the sign. Visitors describe room for only one or two cars at a time, so treat this as a brief stop, not somewhere to linger.
Before the stationThe sign comes about 0.
The sign comes about 0.2 mile before Pinnacles Entrance Station, where you pay or show your pass and pick up park information. The dark sign panel on a tan stone base is the subject of the photo. From I-90 Exit 110, follow Highway 240 south to the entrance.
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.
