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Visit L L L L Bine. Bean, B. an outsider. A long narrow road snakes through Badlands National Park, two roads really, but they carve a single path through the north unit of the park.

South Dakota State Highway 240 or single path through the north unit of the park.

South Dakota State Highway 240 or Badlands Loop Road ironically doesn't provide a

loop through the park.

Rather, the loop is formed when it exits the park to the north and connects to other roads

that bring you back to the easternmost entrance.

But the gravel track of Sage Creek Rim Road continues the path inside the park to the Western wilderness area.

The craggy hills that define the batlands flank the road with their bands of

colored striations, layering variations of browns and

greys and reds throughout the park.

Depending on the degree of erosion, the hills may look like majestic castles, lumpy unfinished pottery or origami with the hills folded in upon

themselves.

Traveling from east to west on the park road, the jagged badlands give way to the rounder yellow mounds highlighted with

vermilion and violet streaks and finally to grassland prairie often teeming

with wildlife where lucky visitors can spot bison rolling in the dirt, with

big horn sheep grazing nearby.

Particularly at dusk or dawn, often called the golden hour, when the amber glow of the sun

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