FUN-travel: Badlands National Park & Hot Springs, SD

August 11, 2018 by · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Badlands National Park & Hot Springs, SD 

Badlands National Park – rolling prairies & grasslands…

…make up the scenery on the two-hour drive via Hwy 44.

  • The Loop Road winds through 25 miles…

…of multi colored layered rock formations…

…steep canyons, towering spires & parched basins…

…that preserve the world’s greatest fossil beds…

…of animals from the Oligocene Epoch…

…that’s like 34 million years ago!

  • Today bison, bighorn sheep, & prairie dogs inhabit the sprawling grasslands.

Not so FF – They list Hwy 44 as a scenic route and in my opinion it didn’t live up to it! It took twice as long as I-90.

…contains the greatest concentration…

…of mammoth remains in the world.

  • Bones were found in 1974…

…when the site was being developed for a housing subdivision…

…which turned out to be a…

…26,000 year old sinkhole.

FUN-fact – As of 2016, the remains of 61 mammoths, including 58 North American Columbian and 3 woolly mammoths had been recovered. And the first time both species have ever been found together.