Hiking in Yellowstone VS. Hiking in South Dakota/ The Badlands/ Custer State Park

Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park is a huge park that offers a lot to its visitors and is a very popular tourist location. Being the magnet, it is to tourists; it is usually very busy and hard to not be by a lot of people. I visited this past summer 2021 and it was extremely busy and there was also always traffic to get around. With the increased traffic and difficultly to get around, hiking time could be delayed or cut short depending on when you visit the park. My group always entered around 7:30 AM and we would start our hikes/ arrive at our destination at about 8:30 AM. All of this is worth it when you are able to see all the amazing views, landscapes, wildlife, and hike the trials at Yellowstone. So, although it is a very busy tourist spot, it is still one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and all the traffic and dealing with tourists was worth it.

South Dakota

The Badlands, Custer State Park, and Mt. Rushmore are all conveniently located very close together and popular locations to visit, sightsee, and hike at. During the business tourist times, like the motorcycle rally, it is more congested but not as much as Yellowstone is all the time. It is a smaller place to get around and more spread out in different areas than Yellowstone too, so this is why South Dakota could be more appealing from a traffic standpoint.