The National Parks in the Black Hills of South Dakota

It is well known that the gorgeous Black Hills of South Dakota is where Mount Rushmore is, but there are other National Parks that are located in the Hills as well. These National Parks are wonderful locations for families to travel to, especially with the upcoming summer months. Taking an in depth-look at the parks in the Black Hills is a wonderful way to research a family vacation before you travel.

One of the most famous parks in the Black Hills is the Badlands National Park. Badlands National Park is a vast park of canyons, buttes, and gullies, that takes up an astonishing 243,000 acres of land. The beautiful landscape of the Badlands show the thousands of years of layers of earth, which have been cut into from the rivers that were once there. There are two visitors centers in the Badlands, which can be of great help along the drive thru the park. The Ben Reifel Visitors Center acts as the main headquarters, and offers not only information about the park, but has a museum, audiovisiual booths, and an area where visitors can handle fossils that have been found throughout the park. In the evenings, this visitors center offers movies in the amphitheater. The eager staff offers guided tours on walking paths in various locations throughout the park. The other Visitors Center in the Park is the White River Visitors Center. This center is smaller than the Visitors Center headquarters, but it offers several attractions such as a video viewing area. This area of the Badlands National Park is focused on the Ogala Sioux Indians, which were once inhabitants of the land.