Severe weather, unwelcoming terrain and scarce water give badlands their name. South Dakota's 244,000 acre Badlands National Park is the largest. A 70,000 acre badlands area in North Dakota is named after Theodore Roosevelt, who said, "It certainly has a desolate, grim beauty of its own, that has a curious fascination for me."
According to the National Park Service, Badlands National Park is in an area the Sioux called "Mako Sica." Mako means "land" and sica translates to "bad." Fearing the word "badlands" was too negative, Congress reportedly tried to choose a different name when it established the park in 1928.
Badlands weather is characterized by extremes. At Badlands National Park, temperatures reach 110 degrees in the summer and plummet to 40 below zero in the winter. Winters bring 30 inches of snow to Theodore Roosevelt Park, and temperatures rarely exceed 20 or 30 degrees.
Arid plains meet towering rock formations that frustrated natives and early explorers. Water, when it can be found, is usually undrinkable because of sediment and mineral deposits. According to the Park Service, snow and heavy rains erode the land at a rate of one inch every year, making an ever-changing landscape.
