Notch Trail

 

Notch Trail is the most popular trail in Badlands National Park. The trail itself is quite short, only 1.5 miles roundtrip. However, 50% of the trail is hiking on rugged rocky surface. Thus having a pair of sturdy hiking shoes is very important. Other than that, the trail involves climbing on steep wooden ladders. It is not suitable for people who are scared of height.

We got to Notch Trail around 7AM in the morning. We were worried that the ground might be very muddy due to the thunderstorm last night, but it was surprisingly firm. We were the only 2 people on the trail and we enjoyed it quite a lot.

The trail itself was not too easy to follow because the trail goes around the rocks sometimes. There are markers along the trail, but sometimes the markers are hard to spot.

After about 20 minutes, we got to the wooden ladder. The ladder does not look that hard as we go up. We do have to make sure we have firm footing on the ladder. The wooden ladder was very slippery due to the rain last night. As we got up to the ladder, we were now at the top of the rocky hill.

The remaining part of the trail goes on top of the rock. Sometimes there were steep drop off on the left side so people do have to pay extra attention. Due to the rugged surface, we walked a bit slower than usual to ensure we don't slip or twist our ankles.

As we got to the end of the trail, the view was simply amazing. We could see the backside of Badlands National Park. It was a magnificent view. Since it was still early in the morning, the sun ray shone on the rocky hill on the far side and the shadow casted on over the grassland on the other side. It was so cool.

As we head back, we saw a family with small children heading over. We were surprised that the kids were able to go up the ladder. Heading back down the ladder was more difficult than going up. We had to make sure our feet were firm on the ladder before going down 1 more step. We could imagine that if there were a lot of people on the trail, everyone would be stuck here waiting for people going up and down.

We would definitely do Notch Trail again. The trail was totally different than any other hiking trail that we have done before. We really loved it and highly recommend doing this trail.