Episode 8:

Where Bad is Good

The Lakota people call it Mako Sica — “bad lands.” With its sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires, it’s easy to see why. But just how "bad" is Badlands National Park? Join us as we venture into this legendary land of stone and light to unearth its many wonders, past and present.

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With a name like “Badlands,” you might think that Badlands National Park is a desolate and forbidding landscape. But as we discover in this episode, the Badlands are as ecologically and geologically rich as they are eerily beautiful. Join host Brian Thacker as he hikes through a colorful tapestry in search of the park's prehistoric past. Along the way, he becomes an unwelcome visitor in a prairie-dog town and goes horseback riding under the shadows of rocky buttes straight out of a Western movie.

You’ll hear from:

Ed Welsh and Paul Roghair from Badlands National Park
Casie Donald from Hurley Butte Horseback

available on Spotify, Apple and Amazon

The first fossil was described here in 1846, the giant jawbone of an animal called a brontothere. To put that into context, [the word] 'dinosaur' was invented in 1842 ... So we can point to this area and say, this is where paleontology begins in the American West.

Ed Welsh, Education Specialist, Badlands National Park

A man wearing a cowboy hat rides on horseback in the foreground while look out at the South Dakota Badlands in the distance. Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

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Badlands Astronomy Festival

Stars and Milky Way Badlands National Park South Dakota

This summer event gathers amateur astronomers, scientists and park visitors under the pitch-black skies of Badlands National Park. Enjoy nightly telescope viewings, evening presentations by special guests and a range of family-friendly activities. You truly haven't seen the Badlands until you've seen them at night!