Badlands National Park consists of nearly 243,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest, protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. Badlands National Park is dated to be 23 to 35 million years old. Throughout its long and everchanging history animals and plants have come to call this desert-like place home. 

 

From the roadside the Badlands look like nothing more than rocks and dirt that extend for miles. Though with a closer look you will find, not only living creatures but a thriving ecosystem. Mixed grass prairies are just what they say, a mixture of short grass prairie, tall grass prairie and everything in between. 

 

Although many people assume a mixed grass prairie would contain only grasses of different species, they are not completely correct. Prairies have an abundance of flowering plants and a vast number of animals. These animals are not what most people think of, a large majority is rodent, bird, and reptile. 

 

While in the Badlands I discovered only a fraction of these plants and animals which can you can learn about by clicking the green button below.