Hiking in The Badlands National Park

On our second day in the Badlands, we decided to go for a hike. We thought we'd start with Saddle Pass, a 1/4-mile trail that met up with the Castle Trail. We thought we could combine them as an out and back. BUT...a short way up the trail I chickened out. It was steep, narrow, and slippery and my fear took over.

Lee at the start before I changed my mind.

I decided to turn around shortly after following the path through that narrow space in the rocks.

Instead, we drove to one end of the Castle Trail which starts at the top of the plateau instead of climbing up to it.

Now this is more like it!

It turned out to be a fun 4-mile out and back hike. Here are some of the sights along the way.

First, a selfie!

There were so many different wildflowers.

We spotted a few bighorn sheep in the distance.

The trail maintenance crew heading home after doing some repairs to the trail.

This is the view from the top of Saddle Pass looking down. Several others we met chose not to do this one either. All the ones we saw coming up or going down were 20s and 30s LOL!

The next day, we decided to hike starting from the other end of the Castle Trail to the top of Saddle Pass. It is a loop trail when combined with the Medicine Root Trail. We thought it was going to be another 4-mile hike, but we miscalculated and it ended up being 7 miles. The first section had interesting twists and turns.

Lots more wild flowers on this hike. 

Sagebrush

Cactus

There were fields of these plants. I learned from the display in the Visitor Center (see below) that they were called Prairie Coneflowers. I imagine the field is beautiful when in bloom.

We did it! Yay!

Next up, Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park.