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Badlands National Park
Plan Your Visit
View from Cedar Pass
View from Cedar Pass looking north.

The park's main visitor center, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, is open daily all year, except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. During the summer months, ranger-led programs are offered throughout the day. Check at the visitor center for more information on these programs. 

The Ben Reifel Visitor Center is located at Cedar Pass on the Badlands Loop Road (Hwy 240), 9 miles South of I-90, exit 131. This recently rehabilitated visitor center contains exhibits featuring geology, paleontology, park wildlife, and resource management. The 20-minute park movie, Land of Stone and Light, is shown throughout the day. Stop at the visitor center for information, restrooms, exhibits, and the park’s movie.

In the South Unit, the White River Visitor Center is open during the summer months and offers information, restrooms, and cultural exhibits.

The park is open all year. There are numerous pullouts and viewpoints along the park’s Loop Road where visitors can enjoy the scenery and native plants and wildlife of the mixed-grass prairie ecosystem.

Painting of a mosasaur  

Did You Know?
During the Age of Dinosaurs, a warm, shallow sea covered the Great Plains, including what is now Badlands. Since dinosaurs were land creatures, no fossils of these animals have been found in the park. Giant marine lizards called mosasaurs swam in the ancient sea, along with sea turtles and fish.

Last Updated: August 23, 2007 at 13:17 EST