Backpack Trail Guide

Trails / South Dakota / Badlands

Deer Haven (Badlands)

Badlands National Park, Badlands Wilderness Area (Conata Picnic Area)

Deer Haven is a juniper grove about halfway up a line of badlands buttes, roughly 2.5 miles from the Conata Picnic Area. Live and Let Hike, in a 2025 post with photos from August 2024, calls it “a juniper-studded amphitheater” where the badlands give way to an evergreen oasis, and notes that many visitors camp there overnight.

It is one of the easier ways into Badlands National Park’s backcountry, though there’s no official trail and no water.

The hike

The walk starts at the Conata Picnic Area, off the partly paved Conata Basin Road, where NPS keeps one of its backcountry registers. Sailingstone Travel urges filling out the registration form, so rangers will notice if your car is still in the lot.

There is no official trail. National Parks Traveler describes an unmarked but well-worn path running along the base of the badlands for about 2.5 miles, with buttes to the north and prairie to the south. Live and Let Hike’s 2025 description heads west across an open plain, over a small rise, then generally south across the flats past reeds, a small clump of trees, and a muddy drainage, through a gap between formations, and up a wash toward the trees. It puts the basin below Deer Haven about 2.25 miles from the trailhead.

The climb to the junipers is the hard part. Where the wash splits into two ravines, a faded path rises between them and then disappears. Live and Let Hike warns that “one thing definitely not to do is to follow the base of the washes,” which are choked with steep, difficult badlands, and advises keeping “to the hillside, no matter how clogged.” An optional scramble over scree and through a notch leads to a flat plateau with views north and south. It recommends a good map or GPS track; Sailingstone suggests an offline map app with the trailhead and landmarks marked.

Carl Johnson, a Badlands artist-in-residence, started a three-day traverse west to Sage Creek Campground from the Deer Haven check-in point, and his account describes clay slopes, game trails, and bison bulls.

Bring all your water. NPS says backcountry water can’t be drunk or filtered and recommends at least a gallon per person per day. National Parks Traveler says summer thunderstorms and days over 100 degrees are common, and names September and early October as the best months to backpack.

For a longer trip into the trailless Sage Creek basin, see the Sage Creek Wilderness.

Tips

Camping

NPS says permits are not currently required for overnight stays in the Badlands backcountry, but asks backpackers to contact the Ben Reifel Visitor Center or Pinnacles Entrance Station first. Camps must be at least half a mile from a road or trail and not visible from a road. The park’s wilderness handout adds 200 feet from water and 400 yards from other campers. Campfires aren’t allowed anywhere in the park, so bring a backpacking stove. Pets aren’t allowed in the backcountry.

Inside Intel: National Parks Traveler lists three camp options here: the prairie at the base of the buttes, the top of the buttes, or Deer Haven’s juniper grove about halfway up. Live and Let Hike points to a grassy meadow to the east as an ideal campsite, though its author didn’t find it on the route described.

Trail facts

The Lowdown

A stove in the Deer Haven junipers:

Fires aren't allowed anywhere in Badlands National Park, so dinner in Deer Haven's juniper grove comes off a backpacking stove. See the stoves testers rate.

See what testers chose →

Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.