I feel incredibly lucky to live an hour from Badlands National Park, which gives us the opportunity to quickly take advantage of breaks in the weather to explore this beautiful area.

Such was the case last week when our January temperatures rose into the upper 50 F / 10 C for a few days. Although windy, the sun was shining so we grabbed some snacks and water for the trail and headed out midday to hike a new-to-us area of the park.

After driving through the unmanned entrance station, keeping our park pass handy in case we saw any rangers during our visit, we headed toward Saddle Pass. There’s a small dedicated parking lot at the trailhead but it has no amenities so we pulled into the nearby campground for a pit stop before accessing the trail.

The Saddle Pass area is considered backcountry so we did need to fill out our information and ‘check in’ for our hike prior to heading off. Immediately after crossing the bridge from the parking area to the trail there’s a wooden sign post with a lid – inside is the sign-in sheet and a pen for easy use.

We tackled the most challenging part of the hike straightaway – a 258-foot / 78-meter climb directly up the hills and over Saddle Pass. The trail was dry with loose rocks, requiring some hand holds and scrambling through the especially steep and narrow areas. The views south from the pass were lovely (and taking pictures was a good excuse for catching our breath before heading on!).

From the pass, we came to the intersection of several trails and caught the Castle Trail west toward the Fossil Exhibit, which is a popular nature trail area right off the main road.

The Castle Trail is straight and easy with very little change in elevation. It winds through the colorful, layered hills in the middle of the park. The trail was mostly easy to follow, but we did appreciate the sign posts with arrows in some of the rocky areas where it wasn’t as obvious how we were supposed to navigate around the hills.

When we came to the Fossil Exhibit, I suggested we walk through Norbeck Pass along the road to make a loop back to the Saddle Pass trailhead where we parked (rather than making an out-and-back hike via the Castle Trail). The sun sets at 4:30 p.m. here this time of year so I thought staying along the road would be safer while allowing us to enjoy the setting sun on the hills.

While I wasn’t surprised that we failed to see another person the entirety of our hike, I was bummed we didn’t see any wildlife. Happily this was remedied on our drive out of the park – it was quickly becoming dusk, and we saw loads of deer as we wound our way back toward home.

Our hike ended up being 5.27 miles / 8.5 km and took us about two hours to complete – half the time the park materials said it would take. I have to assume they are calculating their estimate based on hiking this loop during the summer / warmer weather where you’re more likely to be walking slower and taking more frequent water breaks.

It was great to get out of the house and enjoy some fresh air while exploring one of our national parks. I have a feeling we’ll be spending more time here while the weather is cooler and visitors are fewer!