The Badlands of South Dakota

The Badlands are 244,303 acres of plains and jagged rocky terrain. It was in 1978 that this National Monument of South Dakota was deemed a National Park. The Sioux Native Americans called it "maku sika," which roughly translates into "land bad." The first white men to travel across this seemingly impassible region were French-Canadian trappers. They described it as "les mauvaises terres traverser," or "bad land to travel across." The badlands have been forming for over 530 million …

…ridges and intricately creased slopes. Deeper into the layer cake, the more rounded ridges and spurs, and gentler slopes, reflect the less resistance of the Chadron formation. Numerous "islands" of Chadron mudstone dot the plain in front of the Wall. They look like nothing more than mud mounds, except for striking color-banding which matches perfectly that of the base of the Wall. They are remnants, soon to be gone, of the earlier, ever changing Badlands.