Door Trail - Badlands National Park

After getting our COVID-19 vaccinations, we spent the month of May 2021 on a road trip to Montana and the Dakotas visiting four national parks and one national monument. Our first park to visit on the trip was Badlands National Park in South Dakota. We didn't have a lot of time, but we made the most of an afternoon in the park. Coming from the east on Interstate 90, we exited onto SD-240 at exit 131. SD-240 loops south of the interstate before turning west through the park and intersecting with I-90 again in Wall at exit 110. In the park, SD-240 is known as the Badlands Loop Road.

Our first stop was at the large parking area 2.3 miles south of the Northeast Entrance Station. A parking lot on the east side of the road allows for perpendicular parking for passenger vehicles and parallel parking for buses, cars or trucks with trailers, and recreational vehicles. Four trailheads are located in this parking lot: Door Trail, Castle Trail, Window Trail, and Notch Trail. The Door Trail consists of a 700 foot boardwalk to an overlook. Near the overlook, a set of stairs provide the opportunity to walk out into the badlands. Numbered yellow poles have been hammered into the ground providing waypoints for an additional quarter-mile hike. This is one park where visitors are encouraged to explore on their own without the common admonition to stay on the developed trail. We walked the whole trail on a previous visit in 2017 that I wrote about here. 

A Badlands National Park entry fee of $30 per vehicle, $25 per motorcycle, or $15 per person is valid for seven consecutive days. Other fee payment options include the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes including the Annual Pass ($80), Senior Pass ($80 for a lifetime), Access Pass (free with a documented disability), and Military Annual Pass (free for active-duty personnel). Also available is a Badlands Annual Pass for $55. 

The Badlands National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/badl/index.htm.