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Big Badlands Overlook

VerifiedOpenStreetMap + National Park Service
Looking south-east from Big Badlands Overlook. Terrain and imagery at true elevation.
Access
On the byway
Elevation
2,606 ft
View
Southeast · 150°
Relief
181 ft drop
In view
2 named features
Badlands formations erode at a rate of one inch a year, meaning they only have 500,000 years left!
NPS Photo / Serena Rosales · Public domain (NPS) · NPS
Badlands National Park
w_lemay · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
Badlands National Park
w_lemay · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
Badlands National Park
w_lemay · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
Badlands National Park
w_lemay · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
Badlands National Park
w_lemay · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source

What you’re looking at

Named terrain inside the view from this overlook, nearest first.

  • Flat Top Butte2,487 ftsouth-southeast · 4.9 mi
  • School Section Butte2,436 ftsouth-southeast · 6.1 mi

Light

DateSunriseSunsetGolden hour
March equinox06:5219:0018:22
June solstice05:0620:3419:50
September equinox06:3618:4718:09
December solstice07:1916:1415:27

Local time (America/Denver). Computed for this exact position.

Where it is

  • Kadoka19.7 mi east
  • Philip21.1 mi north-northeast
  • Wall22.2 mi northwest
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Big Badlands Overlook · National Park Service

Big Badlands Overlook provides the opportunity to view the eastern portion of the Badlands wall, and erosional feature that expands from near the town Kadoka (east) to the town of Wall (west). On clearer days, you can see Eagle Nest Butte rising in the southeast horizon, which is situated next to the town of Wanblee, South Dakota. This view shows the lower units of the Badlands Formations. The reddish stripes of the Brule Formation (Scenic Member; Oligocene Epoch, 33.7-32.0 million years ago) dominates the view. The darker gray beds near the base of the outcrops are the older Chadron Formation (Peanut Peak Member; Eocene Epoch, 35.0-33.7 million years ago).

Read it at National Park Service

How high is Big Badlands Overlook?

Big Badlands Overlook sits at about 2,606 feet (794 m).

What can you see from Big Badlands Overlook?

From Big Badlands Overlook: Flat Top Butte (SSE, 4.9 mi); School Section Butte (SSE, 6.1 mi).

What is the nearest town to Big Badlands Overlook?

Kadoka, 20 miles E of Big Badlands Overlook.

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Big Badlands Overlook — confirmed, rated, and photographed by people who actually pulled over. A local confirmation is what upgrades a lookout from Discovered to Verified. Zero hallucinations.

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