Badlands Loop State Scenic Byway (159 km)

Wall South Dakota to Kadoka · one way, about 159 km back to the start

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Why this ride

On the way it passes Pinnacles Overlook, Panorama Point and Ben Reifel Visitor Center. The highest point is about 800 m. It suits an unhurried touring pace.

Roadbook

1. Wall South Dakota start

   Wall is a small town on the edge of the Badlands that has become famous for one of the most successful pieces of marketing in American history. In 1931, a pharmacist named Ted Hustead and his wife Dorothy bought a drugstore here, in a town of a few hundred people, and struggled to make a living. Then Dorothy had an idea: offer free ice water to the travellers crossing the prairie in the heat. Signs went up along the highway for miles, and the customers came. Today Wall Drug is a sprawling complex of shops, with a giant jackalope, a dinosaur, a cafe and an animated cowboy band, and billboards for it appear on roads all over the world.

   It is, of course, a tourist trap, but a good-humoured one, and it has doughnuts, five-cent coffee and a very large collection of Western art and souvenirs. Many riders stop for the experience as much as for supplies. The interstate runs past the town, and the main street has the usual motels, diners and gas stations, so it is a convenient base before the loop road.

   The Badlands Loop road begins a few miles south, and leads through the national park, a landscape of eroded buttes, pinnacles and canyons painted in bands of pink, yellow and grey. The Lakota called the area mako sica, meaning bad land, because it was difficult to cross, and the early French trappers said the same thing in their own language. The road runs along the edge of the formations, with long views over the prairie, and the surface is generally good, with easy curves and a few steady climbs. You may see bison, bighorn sheep and prairie dogs along the route.

   Fill the tank in Wall, since the loop has few services. Summer is hot, with temperatures often above thirty-five degrees Celsius and violent thunderstorms, hail and wind in the afternoon. Spring and autumn are more pleasant, and the low light at dawn or dusk makes the rock glow. Bring water, sunscreen and a windproof layer, and watch for rattlesnakes if you leave the road. Winter can bring snow and closures, and the whole area is far from any large city, so plan ahead.

2. Pinnacles Overlook scenic

   The Badlands look wrong in the best way. Out of the flat grassland of western South Dakota, the ground suddenly collapses into a maze of striped gullies, spires and ridges in yellow, pink and grey, as though somebody had tilted a wedding cake and left it out in the rain. Pinnacles Overlook sits near the northeast entrance of Badlands National Park, and it gives you the first good look over the edge of the wall, along with the long, flat prairie beyond.

   The shapes are young in geological terms. The rock is soft clay, silt and volcanic ash laid down over tens of millions of years, and erosion eats it at something like an inch a year, so the landscape is changing in front of you. Fossils turn up in the layers, from ancient horses and rhinoceros-like beasts to sabre-toothed cats, and paleontologists have been working here since the nineteenth century. The Lakota called it mako sica, land bad, because it was hard to cross, and French trappers called it les mauvaises terres a traverser, and both described it fairly.

   The Badlands Loop Road, State Highway 240, is the way to see it. It runs for about thirty miles through the park, with a series of overlooks along the rim, and the riding is gentle: long sweeps and small climbs, with a surface that is usually good, and a speed limit that keeps you attentive. Bison and prairie dogs may wander close to the road, and bighorn sheep appear on the rocks. The wind is a constant, and summer storms can bring hail and sudden gusts. Dawn and dusk are the best hours, when the low light turns the ridges to gold and rose. Midsummer is hot and exposed, with little shade.

   Fuel is the thing to plan. Wall, on Interstate 90 a few miles north, is a sizeable stop with fuel, motels and the famous Wall Drug, where free ice water drew early travellers from 1931 and the brand has been drawing them ever since. Inside the park, there is little beyond a lodge at Cedar Pass, so fill up in Wall or Interior. Bring water, sunscreen and a windproof layer. The park entry fee is payable at the gate. Walk a little away from the car park, where the quiet is absolute, and listen to the wind in the grass.

3. Panorama Point scenic

   Panorama Point earns its name with a view that really does go all the way round. From the overlook at the edge of the Badlands, the ground drops away to the south into the White River Valley, a wide plain of yellow grass and shadowed canyons, with flat-topped buttes standing on the horizon. It is a quiet place, much less visited than the busy overlooks near the visitor centre, and a good place to sit on the bike and let the wind do its work.

   The land to the south belongs to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota, and this country has seen some of the most painful chapters in American history. The Stronghold Table, a high tableland in the Badlands to the south-west, was a gathering place for the Ghost Dance in 1890, a spiritual movement that frightened the authorities and led to the massacre at Wounded Knee, a short distance away, in December of that year. Today the land is part of the Oglala Lakota's territory, and the Oglala Lakota run a section of the park jointly. It is worth reading about before you come, and approaching with respect.

   The riding here is good, flowing and easy. The Badlands Loop Road passes along the north edge of the formation, through grassland dotted with yucca, and the curves and dips are gentle. The surface is generally good, with a few patches of frost heave. The danger is the weather: wind, heat and thunder come fast on the open plain, and the sky is enormous, so you see storms coming from a long way off. Spring and early autumn are most comfortable, and in October the park is nearly empty, with cool air and clear light.

   There are no services at Panorama Point beyond a pit toilet and a few parking spaces. The nearest fuel is at Interior, a small place, or at Wall, to the north on the interstate, and for a larger choice Rapid City is about an hour away. Cedar Pass Lodge has food during the season, and the visitor centre is a short distance east. Carry water, because the dry air and sun take more out of you than you notice, and rattlesnakes sometimes lie in the sun on the paths, so watch your step.

4. Ben Reifel Visitor Center scenic

   The visitor centre at Cedar Pass is the park's front door, and it is named for Ben Reifel, a Brule Lakota from the Rosebud Reservation who rose to become a US congressman for South Dakota in the 1960s, one of the first Native Americans elected in that era. It sits at a gap in the Badlands Wall where a road, a creek and a handful of old buildings all squeeze through, and from the car park you can see the first great pinnacles rising behind the lodge.

   It is a useful stop for a rider. Inside there is an exhibit on the geology and a collection of fossils, a cafe in the lodge nearby, a bookshop, rangers to ask about the weather and road conditions, and toilets and drinking water that are worth taking seriously in a place with little shade. Outside, trails lead into the formations. The Door, Window and Notch trails are short and each gives a different view of the layered rock, and the Notch includes a log ladder and a drop, so it suits steady feet. Take care on the clay: it is dry and crumbly in sunshine and as slick as grease after rain.

   The Badlands Loop Road is a satisfying ride, and this is its midpoint. It is a fairly straight, flowing road with long views, passing from the pinnacles in the east to the open prairie in the west, with a handful of pull-outs. The speed limit is modest and enforced by rangers, and the prairie dogs, bison and bighorn sheep are all quite capable of stepping into the road. Wind from the west can be strong, and summer storms bring hail. Cedar Pass Lodge has cabins and a restaurant, open in season, and the campground is nearby.

   Fuel is not available at the visitor centre. Interior, a few kilometres east, is tiny, and Wall, off Interstate 90, has several stations, motels and the famous drugstore with its signs stretching hundreds of miles in each direction. Kadoka, to the west along the interstate, and Philip are smaller. Check your tank before you enter, and carry water. The park is open all year, though winter brings snow and the occasional closure, and the entry fee is payable at the gate. The light at the end of the day, when the ridges turn red and the shadows fill the gullies, is the best reason to stay for sunset.

5. Kadoka finish

   Kadoka is a village of fewer than a thousand people on the high plains of South Dakota, a quiet place of wide streets and grain elevators, and the name is a Lakota word often translated as hole in the wall, which refers to a gap in the Badlands wall nearby. The town sits on the interstate, at the south-east end of the long arc of the Badlands, and it is a handy base for those who want to see the park without paying resort prices.

   Around Kadoka the prairie is open and almost treeless, with grass, wheat and cattle as far as you can see. The Lakota lived here for centuries, hunting bison, and the Pine Ridge reservation lies just to the south, where the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890 took place. The history of these plains is one of conflict and loss, and a visit to the memorial and the Lakota cultural centres in the area can provide a more complete picture of the region's past.

   The Badlands Loop Road runs through the national park between Wall and the village of Interior, passing the Pinnacles and Yellow Mounds overlooks and the visitor centre at Cedar Pass. The ride is gentle, with views of crumbling spires in stripes of cream, rust and lilac, and the contrast with the flat green prairie on the rim is startling. Wind blows steadily across the plains, so expect a push, and heat in summer can be harsh. Traffic is lightest in the early morning, and the light is best in the evening.

   Kadoka has fuel, a few motels and cafes, and a small museum with a collection of vintage cars, a curiosity worth a quick look. Philip, the next town east, is about twenty-six kilometres away, but supplies are modest in this part of the state. Be careful of deer and livestock on the road at dusk, and watch for sudden storms, which build quickly on the plains. If you are lucky, a clear night here shows a dense sky of stars, with almost no artificial light to compete.

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