Travel

This Tripped-Out National Park Is Probably the Closest You'll Get to Mars

Where 'Jurassic Park' and 'Nomadland' collide with the Red Planet.

Eddie Brady/The Image Bank/Getty Images
Eddie Brady/The Image Bank/Getty Images
Eddie Brady/The Image Bank/Getty Images

Elon Musk can save his billions: Earth has its own perfectly great Martian landscape, and visiting it doesn’t come with the risk of fiery death or a $500,000 round-trip ticket.

Badlands National Park is home to an otherworldly terrain that looks more Star Wars than the wind-swept grasslands the words “South Dakota” typically conjur. Located in the western portion of this wildly underrated state-where the topography ranges dramatically from boulder-clad mountains to thick forests of ponderosa pines in the Black Hills-Badlands seems to erupt out of nowhere. Golden prairie suddenly gives way to craggy canyons, buttes, spires, and its namesake slopes of sedimentary rock and clay, steep and striated with subtle tints of orange and purple.

While mesmerizingly beautiful-especially at sunrise or sunset, pinnacles aglow-it’s easy to see why the Lakota named it Mako Sica, which translates to “bad lands.” For centuries, native tribes thrived in this hostile environment of scorching summers, arctic winters, sparse water sources, and clay terrain that turns into a gigantic muddy Slip ‘N Slide with the slightest rain.

But harsh as it can be, Badlands is a misnomer. Teeming with a wide range of wildlife-from chirpy prairie dogs to bighorn sheep and roaming bison-and interwoven with immersive hiking trails, the National Park Service originally wanted to call it Wonderland National Park when it was designated in 1978. They wouldn’t have been wrong, even if the name would have softened the rugged allure.

Here are the best ways to explore Badlands yourself.

 by Mike Lyvers/Moment Open/Getty Images
by Mike Lyvers/Moment Open/Getty Images
by Mike Lyvers/Moment Open/Getty Images

When to visit Badlands National Park

This is like the Chicago of national parks: infamous for its drastic weather swings, from frostbitten winters to summers well into the triple digits, with wind gusts that feel like you’re stuck in a giant hair dryer. Thus, your best bet is to skip the peak summer season-when prairie dog-related traffic jams are frequent, RVs outnumber bison, and bikers headed to or from nearby Sturgis clog the lanes-and visit in the fall.

Come mid-September, after out-of-school travelers have dwindled, the park is not only much more open, but the weather doesn’t feel like it’s actively trying to kill you by alternating between oppressive heat and battering rain. With average temps in the low-80s, September is optimal hiking weather, followed by pleasant temps in the mid-60s most of October.April and May are also comfortable and (mostly) crowd-free. This is the best time of year to see wildflowers abloom, illuminating the prairie like a sea of confetti, and bison are more active and prominent as they shed their hefty winter coats. But be prepared for more rain and slippery footing-one minute you’re enjoying a leisurely hike, the next you feel like you’re mud wrestling with Mother Nature.

Matt Champlin/Moment Open/Getty Images
Matt Champlin/Moment Open/Getty Images
Matt Champlin/Moment Open/Getty Images

Tackle the best hiking trails in Badlands

Despite how intimidating the rugged landscape looks, Badlands is truly a wonderland for hikers. Although the park only has some 15 miles of designated hiking trails, this is the rare national park where visitors are free to wander off-trail wherever they’d like – with proper precautions and maintained distance from wildlife, of course.

The most popular area for hiking is the eastern section of the park, where a single trailhead serves as the starting point for most of the mileage in the park: Notch Trail, Window Trail, Door Trail, and Castle Trail. Window and Door are easy jaunts to panoramic overlooks and some of the most scenic badlands views, while Notch is a fun 1.5-mile round tripper that zigzags through a canyon and up a log ladder before culminating with sweeping vistas of billowing prairie and the White River Valley.

Across the road from the trailhead parking lot, Castle is Badlands’ longest route at 10 miles round trip. It’s mostly flat and easy as it meanders through badlands and buttes. Keep your eyes peeled, because bighorn sheep like to graze here. No matter which trail (or non-trail), just remember to hike prepared with plenty of sunscreen, sunglasses, water, and sturdy hiking shoes.

Peter Unger/Stone/Getty Images
Peter Unger/Stone/Getty Images
Peter Unger/Stone/Getty Images

Mind-blowing stars and dinosaurs await

Beyond the hiking trails and the simple beauty of driving the scenic Badlands Loop, the park is a hot spot for stargazing, cycling, horseback riding, and fossils.

After you’ve sufficiently gawked at the sunset views, the night sky erupts with twinkling stars that span to infinity. For a closer look, stop at the Cedar Pass Amphitheater for a glimpse through one of the telescopes available to use at night.

Especially if you’re a Jurassic Park fan, be sure and spend some time at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center to peruse museum exhibits, watch a park film, and chat with paleontologists about the numerous fossils found in Badlands. Although it’s highly unlikely you’ll stumble across a velociraptor claw while hiking in the park, the museum highlights some of the prehistoric animals that once roamed (and swam?!) here. Among them are mosasaurs: bus-sized marine predators that terrorized the waters when the Badlands region was a shallow sea some 69 million years ago. It was also home to an ancient camel ancestor called oreodonts that grazed for plants during the Middle Eocene era, and nimravidae, a saber-toothed cat-like predator described as “hypercarnivorous,” which should make humans very grateful we weren’t alive 40 million years ago.

kathleencarney/RooM/Getty Images
kathleencarney/RooM/Getty Images
kathleencarney/RooM/Getty Images

Venturing into nearby civilization is its own adventure

There’s plenty to see, do, and eat near Badlands as well, whether you’re craving a maple donut or some Cold War history.

With hundreds of hand-painted billboards pointing the way, Wall Drug is the iconic roadside stopover just outside the park, a smattering of kitschy gift shops, saloons, animatronic dinosaurs, and most famously, fresh cake donuts iced in flavors like chocolate and maple.

There’s also another national park site, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, mere minutes from the Badlands entrance. Originally used as a hidden bunker to house 1,000 missiles during the Cold War (ya know, in case the US government needed to destroy civilization at a moment’s notice), the site offers tours of its Delta-01 Launch Control Facility and the Delta-09 missile silo, where visitors can feel the adrenaline rush of being feet away from 1.2 megatons of armageddon.For something a little more Laura Ingalls Wilder than Dr. Strangelove, Prairie Homestead offers Little House on the Prairie vibes with its historic, rickety house and old-timey pioneer attire that visitors can wear.

Badlands National Park is also only 63 miles east of Rapid City, the state’s western hub. With 75,000 residents, it’s the second-largest city in the state and home to hallowed (and allegedly haunted) hotels, Native American stores, art-filled alleys, buffalo burgers, and statues of all the Presidents strewn around downtown street corners (there’s also a very large and famous sculpture of four presidents blown into a mountain outside town… feel free to skip it).

Feeling extra touristy? The iconic sights in the Black Hills are only an hour and a half from Badlands. Filled with ponderosa pine trees – whose canopies are so broad and dark that they appeared black to the Lakota – the forests are so vast and lush that there are endless trails to hike, shimmering blue lakes to swim in, and mountains to climb, including the tallest point in South Dakota, the 7,242-foot Black Elk Peak.

Federica Grassi/Moment/Getty Images
Federica Grassi/Moment/Getty Images
Federica Grassi/Moment/Getty Images

Where to stay near Badlands National Park

If you’ve seen Nomadland, you know Badlands is indeed a popular park for camping and RV-ing. Cedar Pass Campground, located inside the park right next to Ben Reifel Visitor Center, has 96 sites split between RV and tent spots, with reservations available online. There’s also Sage Creek Campground, with 22 free sites on a first-come first-serve basis. For more amenities, Cedar Pass Lodge offers eco-friendly (and super cute) wood cabins, fully stocked with flat-screen TVs, coffee-makers, and mini fridges.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, off-trail back-country camping is permitted literally anywhere in the park, as long as you’re pitching your tent at least half a mile from the nearest road or trail.

Beyond the park, there are cabins and motels to be found in Wall Drug, and plenty of other lodging options in Rapid City, like the iconic Hotel Alex Johnson, complete with rooftop bar – another unexpected sight in this neck of the woods.

No matter where you rest your head at the end of the day, a trip to Badlands National Park will leave you awe-struck by its bedazzled night skies, its Jurassic-sized wildlife, and terrain so otherworldly you’d think you had beaten Elon Musk to Mars.Want more Thrillist? Follow us on InstagramTwitterPinterestYouTubeTikTok, and Snapchat.

Matt Kirouac is a travel writer with a passion for national parks, Disney, and food. He’s the co-founder and co-host of Hello Ranger, a national parks community blog, podcast, and app. Follow him on IG@matt_kirouac.

Travel

Ditch your Phone for ‘Dome Life’ in this Pastoral Paradise Outside Port Macquarie 

A responsible, sustainable travel choice for escaping big city life for a few days.

nature domes port macquarie
Photo: Nature Domes

The urge to get as far away as possible from the incessant noise and pressures of ‘big city life’ has witnessed increasingly more of us turn to off-grid adventures for our holidays: Booking.com polled travellers at the start of 2023 and 55% of us wanted to spend our holidays ‘off-grid’.  Achieving total disconnection from the unyielding demands of our digitised lives via some kind of off-grid nature time—soft or adventurous—is positioned not only as a holiday but, indeed, a necessity for our mental health. 

Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, an accommodation collection of geodesic domes dotted across a lush rural property in Greater Port Macquarie (a few hours’ drive from Sydney, NSW), offers a travel experience that is truly ‘off-grid’. In the figurative ‘wellness travel’ sense of the word, and literally, they run on their own independent power supply—bolstered by solar—and rely not on the town grid. 

Ten minutes before you arrive at the gates for a stay at Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, your phone goes into ‘SOS ONLY’. Apple Maps gives up, and you’re pushed out of your comfort zone, driving down unsealed roads in the dark, dodging dozens of dozing cows. Then, you must ditch your car altogether and hoist yourself into an open-air, all-terrain 4WD with gargantuan wheels. It’s great fun being driven through muddy gullies in this buggy; you feel like Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park.  As your buggy pulls in front of your personal Nature Dome, it’s not far off that “Welcome…to Jurassic Park” jaw-dropping moment—your futuristic-looking home is completely engulfed by thriving native bushland; beyond the outdoor campfire lie expansive hills and valleys of green farmland, dotted with sheep and trees. You’re almost waiting to see a roaming brachiosaurus glide past, munching on a towering gum tree…instead, a few inquisitive llamas trot past your Dome to check out their new visitor. 

To fully capture the awe of inhabiting a geodesic dome for a few days, a little history of these futuristic-looking spherical structures helps. Consisting of interlocking triangular skeletal struts supported by (often transparent) light walls, geodesic domes were developed in the 20th century by American engineer and architect R. Buckminster Fuller, and were used for arenas. Smaller incarnations have evolved into a ‘future-proof’ form of modern housing: domes are able to withstand harsh elements due to the stability provided by the durable materials of their construction and their large surface area to volume ratio (which helps minimize wind impact and prevents the structure from collapsing). As housing, they’re also hugely energy efficient – their curved shape helps to conserve heat and reduce energy costs, making them less susceptible to temperature changes outside. The ample light let in by their panels further reduces the need for artificial power. 

Due to their low environmental impact, they’re an ideal sustainable travel choice. Of course, Tom’s Creek Nature Domes’ owner-operators, Cardia and Lee Forsyth, know all this, which is why they have set up their one-of-a-kind Nature Domes experience for the modern traveller. It’s also no surprise to learn that owner Lee is an electrical engineer—experienced in renewable energy—and that he designed the whole set-up. As well as the off-grid power supply, rainwater tanks are used, and the outdoor hot tub is heated by a wood fire—your campfire heats up your tub water via a large metal coil. Like most places in regional Australia, the nights get cold – but rather than blast a heater, the Domes provide you with hot water bottles, warm blankets, lush robes and heavy curtains to ward off the chill.

nature domes port macquarie
Photo: Nature Domes

You’ll need to be self-sufficient during your stay at the Domes, bringing your own food. Support local businesses and stock up in the town of Wauchope on your drive-in (and grab some pastries and coffee at Baked Culture while you’re at it). There’s a stovetop, fridge (stocked as per a mini bar), BBQs, lanterns and mozzie coils, and you can even order DIY S’More packs for fireside fun. The interiors of the Domes have a cosy, stylish fit-out, with a modern bathroom (and a proper flushing toilet—none of that drop bush toilet stuff). As there’s no mobile reception, pack a good book or make the most of treasures that lie waiting to be discovered at every turn: a bed chest full of board games, a cupboard crammed with retro DVDs, a stargazing telescope (the skies are ablaze come night time). Many of these activities are ideal for couples, but there’s plenty on offer for solo travellers, such as yoga mats, locally-made face masks and bath bombs for hot tub soaks. 

It’s these thoughtful human touches that reinforce the benefit of making a responsible travel choice by booking local and giving your money to a tourism operator in the Greater Port Macquarie Region, such as Tom’s Creek Nature Domes. The owners are still working on the property following the setbacks of COVID-19, and flooding in the region —a new series of Domes designed with families and groups in mind is under construction, along with an open-air, barn-style dining hall and garden stage. Once ready, the venue will be ideal for wedding celebrations, with wedding parties able to book out the property. They’ve already got one couple—who honeymooned at the Domes—ready and waiting. Just need to train up the llamas for ring-bearer duties! 

An abundance of favourite moments come to mind from my two-night stay at Tom’s Creek: sipping champagne and gourmet picnicking at the top of a hill on a giant swing under a tree, with a bird’s eye view of the entire property (the ‘Mountain Top picnic’ is a must-do activity add on during your stay), lying on a deckchair at night wrapped in a blanket gazing up at starry constellations and eating hot melted marshmallows, to revelling in the joys of travellers before me, scrawled on notes in a jar of wishes left by the telescope (you’re encouraged to write your own to add to the jar). But I’ll leave you with a gratitude journal entry I made while staying there. I will preface this by saying that I don’t actually keep a gratitude journal, but Tom’s Creek Nature Domes is just the kind of place that makes you want to start one. And so, waking up on my second morning at Tom’s —lacking any 4G bars to facilitate my bad habit of a morning Instagram scroll—I finally opened up a notebook and made my first journal entry:

‘I am grateful to wake up after a deep sleep and breathe in the biggest breaths of this clean air, purified by nature and scented with eucalyptus and rain. I am grateful for this steaming hot coffee brewed on a fire. I feel accomplished at having made myself. I am grateful for the skittish sheep that made me laugh as I enjoyed a long nature walk at dawn and the animated billy goats and friendly llamas overlooking my shoulder as I write this: agreeable company for any solo traveller. I’m grateful for total peace, absolute stillness.” 

Off-grid holiday status: unlocked.

Where: Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, Port Macquarie, 2001 Toms Creek Rd
Price: $450 per night, book at the Natura Domes website.

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