Prairie dogs
Our first National Park on this road trip was Badlands National Park. Before we drove through the park, we stopped at a place where you can see a lot of prairie dogs, a type of ground squirrel. These little animals are fun to watch and are very curious. We stayed a little while to look at them, see them communicate with each other, and take some pictures. Patience (and food, they love peanuts) are the key to making nice pictures of them. Conveniently, you can buy peanuts at the little store where you park your car.
A very curious prairie dog
Badlands National Park
Then we headed off to Badlands National Park, in South Dakota. It consists of buttes, pinnacles, and spires mixed with grass prairie. It is the home of a number of animals, not only prairie dogs but also bighorn sheep, bison, and deer. This area was called ´mako sica´ by the Lakota Indians and ´les mauvaises terres à traverser’, both meaning bad lands.
You see immediately that the rocks have layers with different colors, caused by different sediments that were accumulated by the different environments over time. The layers at the bottom are the oldest (around 70 million years), while the layers at the top are the youngest (30 million years).
However, Badlands National Park not only consists of rock formations but also grass prairie. Over 400 different plant species grow here and each plant species is adapted to the extreme climate conditions: hot, cold, dry, windy, with floods, droughts, and fire.
We choose driving the scenic route through the park and stop at some places for admiring the different views.
More information about Badlands National Park can be found here.
 
Great shots – love the creatures!
hahah seem to remember all those prairie dogs when my parents road tripped through the badlands! Many years ago! Hope you made it to Corn Palace and Wall Drug 🙂 Beautiful scenery and hot springs. Will have to do again some day!
I love prairie dogs! Great shots. :3
Sharon, I love this! We are doing our own National Park tour this year, so this is right up our alley. I don’t think we’ll be getting to Badlands, but we just returned from Hawai’i where we visited Haleakala and Volcanoes NP. Every park is so unique and amazing. Your photos of the prairie dogs are so fun – great shots!
-Carrick
Thank you. It was our stop on our way to Yellowstone. Hawaï is next on my Bucket list so all the tips are welkome !!
The prairie dogs seem so cute! Love the shots. Must be even a more breath-taking view in real life!
I’m surprised you re allowed to feed them, especially because it s a national park…
Well, technically, the place where you can feed the prairie dogs is not in the National Park but just outside. So, I think that is the reason why it is allowed
Visitor note: I overheard a park ranger telling some visitors that Badlands National Park, along with Denali in Alaska, are the only two national parks where visitors may go off trail hiking. He said people are free to hike, camp and explore anywhere in the Badlands they wish. I didn’t know that.