10 Healthy Benefits You Can Get by Visiting the Badlands

Steps Near the Trail Head of Upper Caprock Coulee Trail, North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

You can come away more healthy after you visit the Badlands than before you visited. The healthy benefits of the Badlands are part of the world-famous quality of life enjoyed in western North Dakota.

1. Enjoy Fewer Mental Distractions

Free your mind on a road trip through the Badlands. Discover more about the Theodore Roosevelt National Park here: https://wp.me/p8zmWn-2jj

Fewer headaches is always a good thing, right?

That kaleidoscope of thoughts tumbling around in your head seem to settle down after you’ve given yourself a break in the Badlands of North Dakota.

2. Feel Relaxed Muscles

You know all that tension you carry at the base of your neck, in your shoulders or back. Whew! Wouldn’t it be nice to get that all loosened up without a visit to your favorite massage therapist?

3. Generate Less Stomach Acid

How do you spell “relief?” “B-A-D-L-A-N-D-S” With tension eased and headaches gone, your stomach could settle down.

4. Breath Mask-free Air

The sound of thunder, the sight of fiery lightening, and the feeling of excitement in the air itself make drives like this an exciting way to get healthy benefits of a change in landscape.

You know that first breath of fresh air you get when you step outside and can take off your pandemic mask? Imagine a whole day of that kind of full-lung, fresh air, oxygen-rich breathing! Clean air abounds in the Badlands.

5. Surrounded by Personal Safety

You won’t find any crime reports of attacks from mutant prairie dogs or ski mask wearing mule deer. Muggings? Nope. Purse snatching? Nope. Car jacking? Nope.

6. Escape Social Judgements

Come as you are and you’ll be accepted, welcomed and befriended. Badlands rancher Theodore Roosevelt lived at Elkhorn Ranch, he fit in because he was a model of the principle of judging a person as an individual, not as a representative of some group. That philosophy still applies today.

7. Ignore the News

Face it, the best way to get all riled up like an angry bison is to let fearsome, aggravating, disturbing news stories flood your psyche. Disconnect in the Badlands.

8. Revive Your Good Smells

Well, not yours, but the smells your nose senses. Sage. Juniper. Sweetgrass. All are wonderful natural aromas and they are yours for free in the Badlands.

9. Absorb Vitamin D for More Healthy Benefits

Also known as “Vitamin Sunshine,” Vitamin D builds strong bones, strong muscles, strong teeth, and strengthens your immune system. It’s free! Long daylight hours give you all!

10. Hear Wild Songs

A sharp eye will catch a bluebird flitting across the barren ground of a prairie dog town, or in a nearby tree.

Those are just the healthy benefits. Others that will last a lifetime are the bonding moments you will create with family and friends — and those are as healthy as you can get.

Where to go for all These Healthy Benefits?

We recommend starting at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, either the south or north units. This story (click here) will help you choose.

Even an easy adventured to the top of Sentinel Butte will return healthy benefits. Click here to see what you will see.

Then, take the next step to explore the hundreds of square miles of Badlands trails, rodeos, festivals and powwows waiting for you.

As you read this, you’re on the Beautiful Badlands ND website, and it includes more than 300 articles of ideas. Start here to sample places you will love to visit this year.

Your mind, and body get a healthy benefit late in the day when you watch the landscape change colors. Nearly any afternoon, storms roll across the Badlands creating a changing color scene. The hue of the landscape can turn gold, blue or magenta — a fascinating exercise for mind and eye. See this sight at Magpie Valley near Grassy Butte.

What does it look like to get all these healthy benefits?

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So, here’s a nudge to take this virtual tour, a gallery of the best images from the Badlands. Try it you’ll like it!

And when you are ready to brag about these beautiful badlands, here’s the cap you can use. Get it ahead of time and be prepared.

Mike Kopp

Love to tell stories -- romantic, nostalgic stories of our explorations in the Northern Plains. 15 years a television reporter/anchor, 12 years radio news director, 3 years newspaper editor, 6 years documentary producer -- a lifetime of communication.