Related Areas

THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL MEMORIAL PARK, in the southwestern part of North Dakota, has some colorful examples of a more mature stage of badlands development. There are few spires and pinnacles, and the hills are more rounded, but numerous buttes and mesas are in evidence. The Little Missouri River bears the same relationship to this area as the White River does to the South Dakota badlands. The rocks of the park are older and were probably exposed to erosion longer, which may account for the "older" appearance of the topography.

The Painted Desert of northern Arizona, a spectacular portion of which is located within PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL MONUMENT, is a colorful and well known badlands area. It is composed of altered volcanic ash, and its rocks are considerably older than those of Badlands National Monument. The landscape, however, has been formed in the same manner—the result of soft rocks, scanty vegetation, and cloudburst rainfall.

Although seldom considered as "badlands" topography, BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, in southern Utah, has a vast array of brilliantly tinted spires and pinnacles which resemble the principal features in Badlands National Monument. In reality, Bryce Canyon is a huge, horseshoe-shaped amphitheater on the edge of a high, forested plateau, with precipitous walls which are receding in much the same manner as the wall in Badlands National Monument.