Parking
Park at the Sheep Mountain Overlook pullout on Sheep Mountain Road. The road beyond the overlook is for four-wheel-drive, high-clearance vehicles; walk the remaining 2.5 miles to the dead end.
Overview
About Sheep Mountain Table Trail
Sheep Mountain Table Trail is a remote out-and-back walk along a dirt two-track beyond Sheep Mountain Overlook. The route follows the high table toward the end of the road, with broad Badlands views, open prairie, and a strong sense of isolation rather than a signed, maintained singletrack experience.
Why go
- Panoramic Badlands views from a quiet, high plateau
- A clear 2.5-mile one-way walk with solitude and open-range scenery
Heads up
- Road and clay soils can become impassable mud after storms
- Rough, unsigned road with no shade, services, or reliable cell service
- High-clearance 4WD access is needed to drive beyond the overlook
This is an easy-to-moderate remote plateau walk with expansive Badlands views and very little infrastructure. Choose it for solitude and scenery, not for shade, facilities, or a maintained trail surface.
Parkwolf’s verdictBottom LineMap & elevation
The route
Loading the Badlands map
Full mapElevation3,182–3,269 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Best time to go
Safety
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
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Badlands Tour Guide
Your drive to Sheep Mountain Table Trail, 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.
Recorded for this trailhead
Hiking on Sheep Mountain TableListen
“You're nearing the access for Sheep Mountain Table, which takes you up to the highest accessible plateau in the park. The real experience up here is the trail across the flat top of the mesa.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Badlands Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Sheep Mountain Table's Remote, High-Altitude Views
- The Vanishing Badlands: Erosion on Fast-Forward
- Mountain Lions: Ghosts of the Junipers
- Swift Fox: Tiny Ghosts of the Prairie
- 111 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, 30 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.”
Trail guide
Hiking Sheep Mountain Table Trail
Route and DistanceFrom Sheep Mountain Overlook, walk the dirt road for about 2.
From Sheep Mountain Overlook, walk the dirt road for about 2.5 miles one way to its dead end, then return the same way for 5.0 miles total. The physical corridor is gently rolling overall, with only modest cumulative elevation change, but the rough road surface, exposure, and remoteness make this more demanding than the mileage alone suggests. The route is stored as the one-way corridor; the visitor distance is the full out-and-back.
Scenery and What You’ll SeeThe walk traverses a quiet plateau with wide views over canyons, buttes, and the greener, more…
The walk traverses a quiet plateau with wide views over canyons, buttes, and the greener, more textured landscape of the South Unit. The road stays near dramatic table edges in places, creating frequent viewpoints and photo opportunities. Open-range grazing may occur, so give horses, cattle, and other wildlife plenty of space.
Access and ParkingSheep Mountain Table Road begins on the west side of SD Hwy 27, about 4.
Sheep Mountain Table Road begins on the west side of SD Hwy 27, about 4.5 miles south of SD Hwy 44 at Scenic. From the highway it climbs about 5 miles to the overlook on top of the table. Park at the Sheep Mountain Overlook pullout; the road beyond the overlook is intended for four-wheel-drive, high-clearance vehicles, so walking the remaining road is the appropriate way to reach the dead end.
Know Before You GoThere are no services, water, shade, or facilities along the route.
There are no services, water, shade, or facilities along the route. Carry plenty of water, food, sun protection, and an offline map, and expect unreliable or no cell service. The road can be narrow, rutted, and muddy, with steep drop-offs in places; yield widely to any vehicle traffic and stay well back from edges. NPS restrictions prohibit pets on hiking trails and in backcountry areas, so do not bring pets beyond the developed roadway and parking area.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Badlands
760 sightingsBisonMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
1,058 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
900 sightingsPrairie DogMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
331 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
303 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.
