Badlands National Park · South Dakota
Badlands is striped buttes and canyons rising out of mixed-grass prairie, with one of the world's richest fossil beds. Kids can spot bison, bighorn sheep, and prairie dogs, and the Fossil Exhibit Trail is a short boardwalk with fossil replicas along the way. The Ben Reifel Visitor Center on the Badlands Loop Road is the best first stop, and in summer you can often watch paleontologists at work in the fossil preparation lab.
Hours, roads, and programs change with the seasons. Check current conditions on the official Badlands National Park website before you go.
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Wild Base Family is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Park Service. Park brochures and Junior Ranger books are free official materials published by the National Park Service; our links open the official PDF (on nps.gov or a copy hosted here) when one is available online.