Early visitors to the southwest corner of South Dakota gave the name badlands to the area, as the arid, desolate, deeply eroded landscape could not support agriculture or even grazing livestock.
But 40 million years ago Badlands National Park was a very different place, where lush vegetation supported an abundance of grazing animals.
The Badlands are famous for its many fossil mammals, including Ancestral horses and camels, sheep-like oredonts and rhinoceros-like brontotheres.
About 5 million years ago the picture started to change, as tectonic forces caused uplift and facilitated erosion of the soft sedimentary rocks, creating the spectacular stark scenery which the park is known for today.
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Photo is from Wikipedia Commons.
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