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Fact sheet · Midwest

Badlands National Park

Unit code BADL. Figures retrieved 2026-11-06. Official alerts, fees, and closures are not copied here.

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States on the system list
South Dakota
Guide region
Midwest. Editorial grouping of the state that contains the centroid, or the first listed state when the point is offshore.
Anniversary-table date
January 25, 1939

Table note: redesignated from a National Monument 1978

Gross area acres
242,742.90

NPS fee acres: 111,485.13. Report date September 30, 2026. Gross area is not the same column as fee ownership.

Boundary centroid
43.8341, -102.3940

Containing shoreline polygon: South Dakota. Not an entrance.

Recreation-visit record
Highest monthly mean is in June, July, or August

Highest mean: July. Lowest mean: December. Mean annual total across complete years: 1,045,850 (10 complete years).

The monthly record

January: 10,795 mean recreation visitsFebruary: 10,571 mean recreation visitsMarch: 22,062 mean recreation visitsApril: 30,167 mean recreation visitsMay: 91,950 mean recreation visitsJune: 208,808 mean recreation visitsJuly: 249,444 mean recreation visitsAugust: 213,824 mean recreation visitsSeptember: 128,723 mean recreation visitsOctober: 50,704 mean recreation visitsNovember: 18,689 mean recreation visitsDecember: 10,113 mean recreation visitsJFMAMJJASOND
Mean of reported recreation visits by calendar month, 2016–2025. Gold is the lowest mean and rust is the highest. A missing bar was not reported. This is a historic average, not a live crowd count.
Monthly recreation-visit record
MonthMeanLowest yearHighest yearYears in the mean
January10,7958,54914,89910
February10,5718,05912,86610
March22,06216,51728,18210
April30,16717,29046,38110
May91,95055,637125,81410
June208,808167,784256,04110
July249,444224,054288,00410
August213,824184,816237,12510
September128,723109,186143,47810
October50,70433,38075,43010
November18,68915,45023,43210
December10,1136,26614,59910

How to use this fact sheet

This is a fact sheet. Every figure is tied to the sources under it. It is not a trail guide, a fee table, or a conditions report.

Official pages

These links were checked when the site was built. A working link is not a live feed. If a standard address did not respond, it is omitted.

Nearest other national parks

Distances are great-circle miles between boundary centroids. They are not road distances or travel times.