Badlands Exhibit

Badlands Exhibit is a roadside wayside 0.2 miles east of Maverick Entrance Station on Big Bend's western side. Pull off for the colorful clay hills and the interpretive panel about their geology. There is parking for cars and bus/RVs, and the exhibit is wheelchair accessible. I'd give it a few minutes if you're driving through the west entrance; it pairs a layered landscape with a useful explanation of what you're seeing.

The pale, striped soils began as sands and muds laid down by an inland river floodplain around 65–70 million years ago. Fish, reptiles, and dinosaurs lived in that environment; erosion later exposed the deposits as these colorful clay hills. Fossils and bones have been found throughout Big Bend wherever the same soils occur. Across the park, paleontologists have identified more than 1,200 fossilized plant and animal species, in a record spanning about 130 million years, so this small stop opens onto a much bigger story.

This is a scenic-photo stop as well as an exhibit. The wayside panel sits in front of the low clay hills, with a darker mountain ridge beyond; include the panel at the bottom of the frame to show both the landscape and what the stop is explaining.