At Cedar Pass, the eastern end of the Badlands Loop, the road drops through a gap in the Wall in a series of tight curves, from the high prairie down to the White River valley below. It is the most dramatic piece of riding on the whole loop, with sharp spires and cliffs rising on both sides and wide views out over the lower land to the south. The Ben Reifel Visitor Center sits at the bottom of the pass, along with a lodge, a campground and an amphitheatre for evening ranger talks.
The visitor centre is named after Ben Reifel, a Lakota man born on the Rosebud Reservation who became a US congressman, and it is the main information centre for the park. Inside there are exhibits about the geology, fossils and wildlife of the badlands, and a fossil preparation lab where you can watch palaeontologists cleaning and preparing fossils found in the park.
The Door Trail and the Window Trail, both short and easy, start from a parking area just north of the pass. The Door Trail leads through a gap in the Wall into a strange landscape of eroded formations, while the Window Trail leads to a natural opening in the rock with a view over a deep canyon. The Notch Trail, a little further, is more challenging, with a log ladder and a narrow ledge, and the reward is a view over the White River valley.
The town of Interior, just south of the park boundary, is a handful of buildings on the prairie with a very grand name. Beyond it, the road continues south toward the Pine Ridge Reservation and the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, a sombre reminder of the violent history of the region.
Fuel can be scarce in this area, and you should plan carefully. Cedar Pass has a lodge and a restaurant, but fuel is limited, and there are only a few stations in the small towns nearby. Kadoka, about thirty-five kilometres east along the interstate, and Wall, to the northwest, have fuel and basic services. The best time to ride is early morning or late evening, when the light is warm and the formations glow.