TripLeader, this is a trip that my wife and I have talked about for sometime. We have a jeep and expo trailer we could take. But our truck (F250) and 4wheelcamper setup is much more desirable for a long trip from TX. Do you think a full size F250 4x4 would be able to travel most off the beaten path roads?
I think a big pickup truck would be fine for most of everything that I saw. The only considerations I would have with it would be:
1. Water Crossings. Most of the water crossings that had been there for some time had rocks below the stream and were hard enough that I would not worry about getting stuck. One of the crossings I encountered had a sharp incline on the other side. I could see that if erosion had cut away the gradual rise, you might find a stream crossing or two that would be steep enough for a long wheel base vehicle to drag the underbelly or get high centered. But, if you did happen to get to a place like that, you could easily turn around. That is the benefit of the grassland is that you virtually always have plenty of space to get around.
2. Rain. It did not rain on me while I was there, but I can imagine that most of the primitive roads would get pretty messy in that event. I assume the park roads would be fine, it would be the fun grassland roads that could get sketchy.
3. Some boggy sections of road. I came to a few places that seemed to sometimes be wet. Here is one example (of a photo to come later in the report).
I was able to go around it. If you came to some similar places, you could make your own determination if you would want to try to go through or around. If it came to it, you would have the space to easily turn around. I'm sure there are others that could chime in with better info about the roads in wet conditions...
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All in all though, I would have no reservations about taking the truck with a camper in the bed to the Badlands. Although the park seemed to be in the off-season, I saw several of those setups while I was there.
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Another resource I was given (for free distribution) at the grassland visitor center was a forest service motor vehicle use map. It looks like this (but is obviously for Buffalo Gap instead).
It shows the roads in the grassland. Specific to Buffalo Gap, it also shows designated areas in the grassland that you are allowed to drive off the road and anywhere you wish to inside the area.
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On a related tangent, I like to read up on the history of a place before I go there. I did not do that for this trip, as I had actually been planning on going to Colorado, then ended up going to South Dakota at the last minute. After I finished reading The Martian, I bought
Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors by Stephen Ambrose. I'm almost finished with it now. The Indian Wars after the Civil War are a very fascinating part of American history to me. I recommend it if you enjoy learning about an area prior to a visit. I had read (and loved) another Ambrose book a few years back,
Undaunted Courage. Its the story of Lewis and Clark, who also add to the history of the area.
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Related to those books, I had considered going to Wounded Knee, which was about 50 miles away or so. Unfortunately it did not work out for me.
