3 Of The Best Short Hikes In Badlands National Park

Short And Mostly Easy, These 3 Trails Are Some Of The Best Hikes In Badlands With Terrific Views, Fun Challenges, And Seeing What Makes This Park Unique

If you don’t have much time but still want to stop in Badlands National Park while you are driving through South Dakota, these 3 short but classic hikes are just 10 minutes from Interstate 90 and will give you a great taste for what the Badlands are all about.

Or maybe you have lots of time in Badlands but perhaps you have teenagers that aren’t into long, boring hikes and so you are looking for something that’s short and sweet but that will also capture their attention. Been there done that- half of our crew does not get excited about long walks to nowhere either. (Their words.) But they enjoyed hiking these 3 trails- Door, Window, and Notch trails.

The trails all share one parking lot, making it so easy to do all 3 of these hikes in one stop. Notch Trail is definitely the most fun here with the rustic log ladder climb and a trail that goes along the edge of the cliffs but the other two were worth hiking as well.

Hiking these 3 trails was a great start for us for our 2 days we spent in Badlands National Park, but I think it would also be a perfect short stop if you were driving along I90 as well. You could be there and back on the interstate in just about 2 hours and still feel like you had experienced part of the Badlands.

FAQ- Where Are The Hikes, How Many Miles, And How Much Time Is Needed

The 3 Best Short Hikes In Badlands:

1. Notch Trail– 1.5 miles RT, 60 min, moderate, fun log ladder to climb
2. Window Trail– <0.25 miles RT, super easy boardwalk to an overlook
3. Door Trail– 0.75 miles RT, 30 min, some neat wandering through the rock beds of the Badlands

These 3 trails are located very near the Northeast Entrance to the park, just a few miles from Interstate 90. All 3 trails share one large parking lot with a restroom building.

We hiked these trails on our first afternoon in Badlands and it only took us an hour and a half to do all 3 trails.

We ended up walking 3 miles in total when you include walking between the trailheads, but it was all fairly easy and mostly flat, except for the ladder at Notch Trail. That was the only part that I would say might increase the difficulty to moderate.

All 3 trails were suitable for kids except that young kids might have issues on Notch Trail because the ladder and there were narrow sections of the trail next to steep drop-offs.

We started with Notch Trail, then hiked Window Trail, and finished with Door Trail.

1. Notch Trail

• 1.5 miles RT, 45-60 min, moderate difficulty because of the ladder
• Pros – nifty ladder to climb, awesome viewpoint at the end
• Cons – ladder would be hard for small kids, you might have to wait to go up or down the ladder if busy, trail is very slick and dangerous in the rain or snow

Trail Description

The trail starts off fairly flat and winds along through the rock formations. In about 15- 20 minutes, you will come to the ladder. The ladder isn’t particularly difficult to navigate but could be a problem for small kids because the log rungs are not uniformly spaced so some of the steps have quite a big gap between.

It was harder going down the ladder than it was going up, but it wasn’t a problem for me and I have a well- developed fear of heights.

After the ladder, the trail follows along the edge of the rock formations and there are some steep drop-offs in sections, which could be another issue if you were trying to do this with young kids. And I wouldn’t try this at all in rainy/ snowy conditions as the specific type of clay that makes up the Badlands becomes incredibly slick with water apparently.

(Many of the signs we found at Badlands talked about the unique characteristics of the clay here and how it absorbs a crazy amount of water.)

30 minutes after we started, we arrived at the “Notch,” which is a break in the rocks where you can look down on the valley below. It was really pretty and easily worth the short hike there. You can see down to the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, Cedar Pass Lodge and Campground, and the viewpoint of Cliff Shelf Nature Trail below you. It would be a great place to watch the sunset.

We hiked back to the trailhead which was easy except we had to wait a little bit at the ladder for people coming up. That was no problem as we weren’t in a hurry but the people who were behind us were pretty impatient.

The park wasn’t busy in October and this still happened so I can only guess what it must be like in the summer months. Notch Trail is the most popular trail in the park so I bet you see a lot of impatience waiting on the ladder.

I would hike this trail very early or late in the afternoon if I could in the summer in order to avoid the worst of the heat and the crowds. The rest of the year, I think you could hike it whenever it suited you as long as it was daylight and dry conditions.

2. Window Trail

• 0.25 miles roundtrip, 10 min, easy boardwalk trail to an overlook
• Pros- super easy, suitable for toddlers or mobility impaired
• Cons- overlook wasn’t that great

This short stroll to a “window” in the wall overlooking the rock formations was pretty but nothing I would stop for on its own. Maybe it’s because you get so spoiled for these kinds of views all over Badlands National Park.

We walked over to see it merely because it was adjacent to the Notch Trailhead and there was a bighorn sheep hanging out there. He was chilling (literally) on the shady side of the rocks.

Eventually, I think one too many people gathered taking pictures or maybe he got hungry, I don’t know, but he decided to make his way down the short rock face and off into the tall grass. He didn’t seem all that bothered by the people though, so maybe he was clocking out after doing his time performing for the tourists.

3. Door Trail

• 0.75 miles roundtrip according to the website, 30 min, easy-moderate difficulty
• The first 0.1 mile is easy boardwalk, the next approx 0.3 miles is an unmaintained trail that is marked by small posts that was a little bit more difficult because of the uneven terrain.
• Pros – fun wayfinding over the rocks, terrific views
• Cons – wish it was a longer trail

At the very other end of the parking lot from Notch Trailhead (it is almost 0.3 of mile between the two), you will find Door Trail.

Trail Description

The first bit of Door trail is a handicap accessible boardwalk that was super easy and ends at a bench overlooking the rock formations. This took us 5 minutes to walk and only that long because I stopped to read the signs about the geologic formations in the Badlands.

Once the boardwalk ends, you can climb down a few stairs and set off over the rocks on an unmaintained trail if you want to explore more. The trail sign says this bit is 800m long (about 0.5 miles), difficult, and that you need about an hour to do it.

I am not sure if the trail we took is different from when the sign was made but the trail we did was not difficult and took us about 20 min there and back and was more like 0.3 miles each way according to my Garmin.

The hardest part of hiking the unmaintained trail is watching your step on the uneven footing and looking for the short yelllow posts that mark the trail. At first, I didn’t really think the posts were necessary but after you go a bit, you realize all the rocks look the same and not all of them connect back to each other.

You could easily find yourself on a peninsula surrounded by dropoffs if you weren’t looking. It’s a bit like a maze, which was neat because you had breadcrumbs/ yellow posts to follow. It would be less neat without those posts so I am glad they are there.

You know you are at the end of the trail because there is a handy sign that says “End Of Trail.”

The trail end was a gorgeous spot where you are surrounded by all the rock formations and it was definitely worth the 10 min walk out there. It was especially cool for us because we were the only people out there in the late afternoon. We hung out here for a bit and enjoyed the silence.

Tips For Hiking In Badlands National Park

1. Water is your friend. The Badlands are an arid environment and can be super hot, especially in the summer. It got over 90 while we were there in October and over 100 degrees can happen in the summer. Hot + dry = heatstroke fast.

2. Sunscreen, hats, and sunglasses are also your friends. Shade was not something we found often on any of our hikes in the Badlands.

3. Watch for prairie rattlesnakes. They like to hide in rock crevices and hunt in tall grass so watch where you put your feet.

4. Early morning and late afternoon have the best light for photos. The midday sun when it is overhead reflecting off the light- colored rocks can be almost blinding.

5. These are all popular trails so morning and evening would be better to avoid the crowds. Especially in summer, I would aim to be here first thing in the morning or towards sunset.

6. Avoid Notch Trail and the off trail portion of Door Trail if it is rainy, icy, or snowy. Thanks to my newfound knowledge about the geology of the Badlands courtesy of the signs on Door Trail, I know that the bentonite clay that makes up some of the rock in the Badlands is partly composed of volcanic ash that can absorb crazy amounts of water. The grains can swell up to 20 times their size, thus making surfaces extremely slick.

Where To Stay In Near Badlands National Park

There isn’t a huge amount of choice near the park actually as this is a pretty sparsely developed area. There are probably more campgrounds/RV parks around here than hotels so that could be an option. The nearest town is Wall and there is limited hotel availability there.

Cedar Pass Lodge Is Amazing

My number one choice for lodging is the cabins at the Cedar Pass Lodge, which is located inside Badlands National Park. We spent the night here after doing these 3 hikes and we loved it. The lodge is only a couple of miles away and takes less than 10 minutes to get there.

Read my complete review of Cedar Pass Lodge and see pictures of the inside of our room, the sunrise, and the sunset. (Spoiler- it was so pretty.)

Cedar Pass Campground

If you are camping, then the Cedar Pass Campground was within walking distance of the lodge and looked nice. It is run by the Lodge people and not by the park service. There was very little to no tree cover for campsites so I can imagine it gets hot in the summer and I might worry a little about the wind as a tent camper. There were more RVs than tents when I drove through the campground but that could also be because it was October and it got cold at night. That’s what stopped us from camping.

The campground is open seasonally from April through the end of October and has flush bathrooms and pay showers. They have tent only sites, non-electric and electric RV sites and group sites. The group sites are available over the winter apparently without running water and you must call to reserve them. There is a septic dump site available nearby as well for $1.

Each campsite does have a sheltered picnic table but no fires are allowed. The sites don’t have any privacy from each other either but the views during the day and the stars at night would make up for a lot of the shortcomings.