1. BADLANDS
by:bobby Fraser
The badlands is one of the most beautiful I know of.Some people
disagree but it has some pretty cool
things about it. There is still grass and animals there. Containing the world’s
richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 34-25 million years old, the evolutionary
stories of mammals such as the horse and rhino arise from 244,000 acres of sharply
eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires. Bison, bighorn sheep, and endangered black-
footed ferrets roam one of the largest, protected mixed-grass prairies in the United
States.Badlands National Park contains the world's richest deposits of fossils from
the Oligocene epoch. Paleontologists have uncovered the remains of ancient three-
toed horses, tiny deer-like creatures, turtles, a saber-toothed cat, dinosaur bones
and other prehistoric animals.Covering 244,000 acres, Badlands National Park is one
of the largest protected mixed-grass prairies in the United States. The park, located
south of Interstate 90 between Exits 101 and 131, is home to many species of
wildlife including bighorn sheep, bison, the swift fox and the endangered black-
footed ferret. Antelope and deer are commonly seen roaming near roadways and
picnic areas. More than 64,000 acres of the park are designated as
wilderness.Approximately half of Badlands National Park lie within the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation and contain several sites that are considered sacred to the Oglala
Lakota. The National Park Service and the tribe work closely together to co-manage
and protect this part of the park, commonly known as the South Unit. This land,
south of Highway 44, is mostly undeveloped and has only minimal access by road.