Nearby, St. Canisius Catholic Church stands over the town. Scenic overlooks provide panoramic views of the colorful rock layers, offering excellent photo opportunities. Geologist Karen J.R. Mitchell provides perspective to awe-struck visitors by explaining that the Badlands is a system of canyons that have eroded to show the layers of sandstone, siltstone and claystone deposited by a river system 60 million to 65 million years ago. The hills began to form only 600,000 years ago, when water, diverted by glaciers from the ancestral Little Missouri River and its tributaries, rapidly carved into the Paleocene-age bedrock to depths of 600 feet. Layers of the red rock are often called scoria, a misnomer because true scoria is a volcanic rock and volcanoes never existed in North Dakota.
Geologists refer to the rock by a less prepossessing name- clinker.
Multicolored rocks provide effective camouflage for the wild game that freely roam the Badlands and, occasionally, Highway 85. Roosevelt National Park, open year-round to visitors. The park road leads to scenic pullouts and overlooks, inviting camping and picnic areas, and interesting nature trails. A canoe trip down the Little Missouri River offers a spellbinding perspective of the wild grandeur of the Badlands. Highway 85, called the CanAm Highway because it spans the United States, leads to the center of cowboy country, Watford City.