Layered buttes and jagged canyons stretch across the prairie in one of the continent's richest fossil landscapes. South Dakota wears its history on the land itself, and this landmark is a case in point.

The park protects nearly 244,000 acres of eroded buttes, pinnacles and mixed-grass prairie.

What sets it apart

Its rock records some 75 million years of deposition and erosion, packed with mammal fossils. It is the kind of specific that turns a passing curiosity into a lasting fascination.

The Badlands Loop Road links dozens of overlooks between Wall and the Pinnacles entrance.

Why it matters

Taken together, these threads say something about South Dakota itself — a place where the old and the new sit close together. However you come to it, this is a place that stays with you long after the drive home.