Boicourt Overlook

The short paved path is the easy option and is identified as accessible. It measures 0.2 mile; a separate unpaved continuation reaches another overlook along the ridge. The 0.2-mile figure applies to the paved section, and the distance of the farther route is unclear. The dirt track is narrower and exposed, so stick with the pavement if you want the accessible route or aren't comfortable with ridge-edge footing. The ridge can also catch strong wind.

Visitors sometimes spot bison below the overlook. Treat that as a bonus rather than the reason to stop; the view is here either way.

The layers here began forming more than 65 million years ago, when sand, silt, mud and volcanic ash washed in from the mountains and settled across the region. Over time they hardened into sandstone, siltstone, mudstone and bentonite clay. Later, ice sheets changed the Little Missouri's route. Its steeper course cut down through the soft rock and carved the buttes and canyons spread out below.

Across the park, lightning or prairie fires can ignite buried coal seams. The heat bakes the sediment above into red, brick-hard rock called scoria or clinker, which erodes more slowly than the softer layers around it. Look for those caps where they break the otherwise muted bands of the badlands.

Keep some of the broken foreground in the picture and let the distant buttes sit along the horizon. Those near layers give the broad landscape a sense of depth that a frame filled only with the skyline misses.