Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park has been on my list of places to see for years. Most of my family had been there, and the photos I had seen further heightened the desire to see the place. 

When we were there, the visitor center was closed due to Covid-19, and they hadn't started charging the park entrance fee. The nonprofit park support organization had a couple of EZups set up outside the visitor center with some select merchandise. They monitored the number of folks through the area at the same time. I was happy to get a stamp for our national park passport. We ate our picnic lunch in the picnic area there before continuing on our way.

We decided to venture on a couple of hiking trails. There's a parking area where you can access two handicap accessible trails - Door Trail and Window Trail - as well as the Notch Trail. We did all three with the Notch trail being the most fun with its ladder climb. 

When we got back to our home, still located at Heartland RV for this adventure, I checked to see if Star Trek had ever filmed in the Badlands. The rocks really have that alien world feel to them, and I could too easily imagine Captain Kirk and Spock radioing Scotty to beam them up. For the record, no, Star Trek did not film there. 

Still going up - going down was worse

This is the reward view for climbing that ladder