Our 50th wedding anniversary will be in early October and rather than take the conventional trip, like a cruise, Paris, or Hawaii, we will satisfy our curiosity about that area of the country by visiting the Badlands in South Dakota. We will visit the Crazyhorse monument, Custer State Park, Deadwood, take scenic, drives, and explore that part of the state. We are from Connecticut so it’s unlikely we will be out that way again. Does Teddy Roosevelt National Park offer a different experience from the sites in SD? Also. I’m confused about the north and south areas. Do you have to leave the park and drive local roads to get from one to the other? Are those two areas each worth seeing or is one more interesting than the other? At our age, we are not really hikers, but check out visitors’ centers, join some Ranger activities and take a lot of pictures.

Welcome to the Fodors Forums. Your thread has been moved to the United States Forum and tagged for South Dakota

Sounds fun. I've never been to TR National Park but you could also go to Devils Tower National Monument which is 1 hour west of the Black Hils. It's pretty impressive. There is also Wind Cave National Park with a wild bison herd. What I really like are the bighorn sheep in Custer State Park.

The 2 badlands areas are different, South Dakota’s are more “up” and North Dakota’s are more “down.” SD’s probably more scenic to most. This is a part of the country where driving is fast and it’s easy to cover a lot of ground.

The TR park: the southern unit (along the interstate) is the main attraction. The northern unit preserves the old TR ranch, not sure if any structures still stand.

Thank you. It sounds like we should visit the southern part.

My mistake, there are 3 units, the ranch site is in the middle. People report lots of bison in the north unit.