The White River BADLANDS could be considered a pocket-sized cousin to Arizona's Grand Canyon. Beyond the family resemblance, what's most impressive about the "Badlandscape" is not its scale, as at the Canyon, but rather its sheer strangeness. More than 35 million years ago this area of southwest South Dakota was a saltwater sea; later it became a marsh, into which sank the remains of such prehistoric mammals as sabre-toothed cats and three-toed horses, to be covered with white volcanic ash. Drying as it evolved, the terrain became unable to support the deep-rooted shrubs or trees that might have preserved it, and over the last few million years erosion has slowly eaten away layers of sand, silt, ash, mud and gravel, to reveal rippling gradations of earth tones and pastel colors. The crumbly earth is carved into all manner of shapes: pinnacles, precipices, pyramids, knobs, cones, ridges, gorges or, if you're feeling poetic, lunar sandcastles and cathedrals. The Sioux dubbed these incredible contortions of nature Mako Sica , literally "land bad"; early French trappers echoed that with Mauvaises Terres à Traverser , or "bad lands to travel across"; they have also been aptly described as "hell with the fires out." Despite this daunting reputation, animals such as bighorn sheep, mule deer and prairie dogs are at home here, while on average a million visitors pass through each year.

The most spectacular formations can be found within the Badlands National Park , particularly its northern sector, while the southern stretches are encompassed by the poverty-stricken Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Clean-cut Wall , just a few miles north of the park boundaries, is the most visited commercial center in the region.

Badlands

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• Badlands National Park
• Pine Ridge
• Wall
• Wounded Knee

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