One Day at Badlands National Park: Notch Trail, Badlands Loop Road, & visiting Wall Drug! ☕️🍩

this week we're exploring south dakota with south dakota tourism to show you all the best hikes things to do places to see and delicious food to eat all across this beautiful and diverse state so far this week we have visited mount rushmore got in a bison jam drove through spearfish canyon wandered around historic deadwood hiked to the highest point east of the rockies and saw lots of presidents and a norwegian church replica in rapid city and for day five of our road trip we're checking our 28th national park off our list badlands national park south dakota is home to two national parks wind caves national park which we kind of explored the other day i guess you can count it and badlands national park and today we're gonna explore as much of the park as possible from different trails to overlooks to very tasty treats nearby and we're starting it off with sunrise at the big badlands overlook we were very confused as we were pulling up we had about a minute left until it says we arrived and there's nothing but flat land around so it's like did i put in the wrong thing again but you pull up to the parking lot the overlook that we're at is right here as soon as you enter the park and it's like boom right in your face [Music] the sunrise was a bit i guess you could say unexpected it's about 20 minutes late it's just now kind of technically rising i guess we finally see it we haven't seen the sun at all yeah there's been a lot of um wildfires uh in colorado and california so there's a lot of smoke in the area just hovering about and there it is right there yeah i think it was hiding behind a wall of smoke but it just popped up and it's like this bright orange hot pink color from the smoke it's really crazy yeah it's so weird when it's like this you can actually look at the sun it's kind of probably still not good for you maybe but it's at least you can look at it and you're not hurting but even with the kind of cloudy sunrise these badlands are so beautiful cool they're just humpy and they look stripy humpy and stripy they just have these like vivid like red stripes throughout them and it's just it's flat but then all of a sudden there will be some big badlands it's just really really interesting scenery so humpy and stripy is definitely not the scientific definition of what badlands are still very early i'm still waking up drinking the coffee but to give you guys the scientific definition they are a type of dry terrain with soft sedimentary rocks and clay rich soils that have been extensively eroded by wind and water as the name implies the park is filled with these badlands but that's not the only reason why it's called that the lakota that lived in the area called it macosica i hope i'm pronouncing that right but that translates to badland or badlands one of the two and also when the french came through they called it the french equivalent of badlands to travel through it's really harsh terrain when it rains it gets really slick and muddy it's really hot summers really cold winters and we even had first-hand experience of this difficult terrain we were just walking out here at the overlook walking on some of the dirt and some patches were real muddy we got these giant clods stuck to the bottom of our shoe like thick one-inch clods of mud it was it was an experience but ironically in 1922 when they were naming the park one of the suggestions was to name it wonder land national park so they went the complete opposite direction and went from wonder to bad hike number one of the day is the notch trail it's a 1.3 mile trail there is a super interesting fun activity feature to the hike that we are super excited about [Music] and now for the fun part this really cool wooden ladder to get to the top [Music] that was awesome it got a little scary towards the end but oh my gosh that was so fun well that was a unique and fun quirk to a trail it definitely was way more fun than the ropes at mount storm king [Music] the scenery here is unlike anywhere we've ever been it's it's crazy and the best part so far has been these trails they just go right through it you can just get up close and personal and just be surrounded right in the middle of it what's i think even more interesting about this place and it's kind of what we said this morning as we were driving in it was just flat land like you kind of see out there we're like where the heck are the badlands are we going in the wrong place but then it's so it's flat but then these things are jutting out of the earth and these guys over here are just sharp and they're just pointy and jagged and there's lots of la on this vlog i'm running out of words to say because it's just incredible it's so different [Music] i keep stumbling over my words and i can't figure out how to describe this place but i think the best way to describe it is that it feels like you're on another planet that was a super fun hike it's short it's pretty easy and it has that awesome cool ladder that you get to climb up and down i think climbing down it might have been scarier because as you're looking down it looks really steep it's pretty steep yeah wood wood wood one you're like where's the end but oh that was awesome so now we're on to the door and window trail two super easy short hikes and the best part is they leave from the same parking lot [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so the previous trail was called the window trail so as you would do with a window you look through it this one's called the door trail you follow this boardwalk and you enter through the door into the badlands they say wow it gets kind of canyony in there like deeper and it looks a little windy we've only been to zion and bryce but we've driven through utah a few times we've been in moab and this just looks like something you would see in utah it says on the board back there that it's it seems like it's off of a movie set and it kind of does it's like another planet movie set other world other otherworldly [Music] [Applause] [Music] so far today we came in from i-90 came into the park here and we started our day for sunrise at big badlands overlook and then we came down about three minutes to do these other trails the notch door and window and then we came down just another minute or two to the visitor center and got our patch and our postcards and the rest of the day now we are going to do what's called the badlands loop road that takes you all the way over here then we're going to leave the park for just a little bit to go to wall and if you're familiar with this area at all you will know that there is a very big touristy activity to do there so we're going to check that out and then we're going to come back down to the pinnacles overlook for sunset tonight [Music] something that's great about badlands is if you're short on time you can still visit this park and see a lot of stuff so the hikes we did this morning were a mile less than a mile each the window trail was like a three-minute walk from the parking lot so if you're just driving through the area and you want to see badlands for the first time but don't have a ton of time to spend you can do those hikes you can just drive this loop road and stop it overlooks which is great because some parks require you to you know spend hours hiking to see all the beauty but a lot of the beauty is just off the road right here [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so one of the more interesting stops along the loop road is the yellow mounds overlook so apparently according to the sign down there it said there was once a sea here that drained away this is 65 million years ago then the jungle grew over it and all the roots from the trees kind of kicked up the sand and kind of made it yellow and then a red soil grew over it and then another layer it's just a really cool stop because all the all the hills have like a yellow tint to them [Music] [Applause] so about 10 minutes from badlands national park lies the town of wall and in this town is this place called wall drug and we haven't been inside yet but from what we understand it's this massive complex with a convenience store there's like things you can buy shopping there's a restaurant i don't even know how to describe it it's just huge and there's so many things inside it started in 1931 and they gained popularity because they offered free ice water to travelers along i-90 and i don't know if they have a monopoly on all the billboards in like the 40 50 mile radius but seriously every billboard you see is for wall drug just like this one we even read earlier that they have one in antarctica what so it's now this huge like tourist attraction it's two million people a year and so it's definitely a touristy thing to go do but we're in the area and we gotta go check it out [Music] this is like a mall yeah that's what i'm saying earlier i thought it was gonna be more like a buckies this is like a full-on mall [Music] we've officially been wall drummed and that was even cooler of an experience than i thought it would be yeah you need a map for that place it's it's a labyrinth you can get lost in there so easily we had no idea where we were going there's so much in there it's like a it's kind of like a mall it also kind of felt like a theme park minus the ride yeah like the transitional areas like decorative areas yeah like it's very creamy we love this kind of stuff or at least i do there's all kinds of souvenirs everywhere there's multiple places to get food coffee donuts pies fudge you name it they have it in there they have jewelry they have a chapel you i think you can get married i don't know it was crazy you can't leave wall drug without getting something so we got a couple donuts they have three flavors of vanilla this is chocolate and then this one that is smelling so damn good maple oh heck yeah they're also famous for their five cent coffee so here we go five cents worth of coffee right here so these are cake donuts and they make them in house and then they just put the frosting on top of them oh my gosh it smells so good i'm being naughty today i don't even care i just had to get a donut and i love maple donuts so i'm very excited it is such a soft fluffy cloud in there that is a i haven't had a donut in a really long time but this is a really good donut so cakey and good and it's really sweet on top from the frosting oh man mm-hmm i went with chocolate i'm gonna snag a bite of the maple when she's not looking but here we go mmm yeah you got it right it is super soft and pillowy and moist and just very i want to curl up with this this is very good don't leave me for that donut and now for the five cent coffee will it taste like it's five cents yeah i hope not it's probably just as good as gas station coffee which is actually my dad's favorite kind of coffee it's okay yeah it's not bad it's not the best coffee i've ever had but i'm pretty tired for five cents you can't really beat it it's basically free plus coffee and donuts oh the ultimate one of the ultimate combos it's like pb j coffee and donuts i don't care how touristy wall drug is you have to come here it's such a fun unique experience definitely delicious experience get the donut get coffee that other really good food you can get yourself some jewelry you can get yourself like a roast beef sandwich that's apparently world famous look pretty good or a hot beef sandwich i think it's called but i get why this place has a lot of hype i think it's really fun but we we're kind of into this cheesy kind of stuff we finished those donuts in probably 15 seconds they were going fast we're gonna go back to the park later for sunset but in the meantime we're gonna go to our boondocking spot so our free campground that we're gonna stay at tonight and just kind of hang out for a little bit it's supposed to have amazing views it's outside of the park but basically like looks into the park it should be awesome check out this camping spot we've got all these badlands just outside our door the national park is just over there a stone's throw away we found this camping spot on campendium which is an app we use a lot of times to find a lot of our free camping spots and this one kind of checks off all the boxes you got awesome views that are right here it's easy to get to and it has service i don't know that's the holy grail of free camp spots this is going to be awesome so this is our free campsite that we're hanging out at right now we'll sleep out tonight and if you zoom out you'll see some badlands right here but i lied earlier they're actually not in the park you zoom out more you'll see the park is right down here in this big red area we're using this app called air map and we love this app because it tells us if we can legally fly our drone or not and obviously red means no you cannot because you cannot fly drones in national parks but we are not in the national park we're not even facing the national park if you zoom into our spot we get that green light so let's show you the view [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we hung out at our camp spot for a few hours we worked a little bit we ate dinner and now we're back at the badlands our first stop is sage creek rim road which is a dirt road that's off the loop road almost at the end of the park i guess the entrance of the park depending on which way you come in we've heard this that this is a really good road to see wildlife on we actually just saw three bison one of them was rolling around on the ground like we saw at custer state park so that was really cool but the real reason we're here is to see some really cute prairie dogs [Music] we came to this spot called robert's prairie dog town and when i was researching this i saw the name and it sounded like a very touristy thing and i was kind of confused why is there a touristy thing in the national park and then the other day when we were in the black hills i was reading a magazine and they had a little thing about prairie dogs in there and it says they live in they live their community or whatever is called a town so now just before we got here i was thinking robert's prairie dog town okay and i put two and two together and it makes sense they're so cute [Music] [Music] uh [Music] we weren't sure if that was going to be worth the drive on this super rough dirt road but that was amazing they were so cute they were making these like barking noises they were wrestling with each other they were just so fun to watch like watching them eat with their little hands oh i love prairie dogs and now we're off to the pinnacles overlook for sunset [Music] [Music] [Music] it was a good day at the bad lands adam doesn't want me to say these cheesy things but i've been holding it in all day i've just been wanting to make bad jokes get it oh i didn't even mean that one a kid but seriously we are kind of mind boggled right now at how the black hills where we were the last few days is foresty and and kind of mountainous and stuff like that and an hour and a half away is the badlands completely different landscape like we said earlier it feels like another planet that feels like a movie set it's nuts dry and dusty and rocky it's so different it's it's crazy it's just so diverse here way more than we thought and yeah it was a really fun day exploring it so that's going to do it for us at the badlands today but tomorrow we are going to go on a little south dakota road trip and we should have some pretty fun stops along the way oreo donuts is that what he said no oreo donuts or popcorn [Music] this is making me hungry [Music] you

Channel: Adventures of A+K

Views: 158,794

Keywords: south dakota, south dakota travel, south dakota travel vlog, things to do in south dakota, what to do in south dakota, things to do in south dakota usa, what to do in south dakota usa, south dakota road trip, badlands national park, notch trail, wall drug, the badlands, wall drug south dakota, first time at wall drug, badlands national park south dakota, things to do at badlands national park, what to do at badlands national park, things to do at badlands

Id: x_y-BGwSYaA

Length: 23min 36sec (1416 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 17 2020