Our first ‘family’ vacation included an 18 month old, a mother 5 months pregnant, and 65 miles of barren, gravel road that lead to a remote location of the Grand Canyon. That explains a lot about what kind of family we are. Our interest in the outdoors and taste for adventure hasn’t subsided with arrival of children in our family. Rather we’ve attempted to embrace the challenges that come with traveling with kids. We’ve made modifications like traveling through the night and mid-day naps (who doesn’t like mid-day naps?). These days we are traveling with our 3, 5,and 7 year old children. The purpose of this website is to share some of our National Park experiences with other families.

Why the Badlands?

Since we live in the Midwest traveling to the “major” parks like Glacier or Yellowstone has been a challenge. Vacation time is limited and kids can only ride happily in the car for so long. Looking at the map we decided the best compromise between where we wanted to go and how many miles we could drive with three children was the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled. I had wanted to go back to Utah to spend more time at Bryce and Zion or straight west to the Tetons and Yellowstone. However we decided half the hours of driving time trumped any other considerations and booked a small cabin at the Cedar Pass Lodge. We certainly didn’t regret it. We’ve been back several times and just can’t seem to get enough of this wonderfully unique place.