The Badlands are replete with gradiated shades of color in the striped layers of soil and the brilliant hues of wildflowers in spring and summer. The White River Badlands in South Dakota are the site of the Badlands National Monument, and North Dakota has spectacular badlands on the Little Missouri River. The Prairie Expanses of rolling grassland still show evidence of the vast herds of buffalo which once roamed the fenceless plains. Much of the prairie has been converted into productive farmland. Other ranges of grassland are purely cattle country, untouched by the plow, and still managed by cowboys on horseback.
Wildlife is abundant here.
Deer, antelope, and coyotes are frequently seen, and the prairie is famous for its ring-neck pheasant population. The great Missouri River divides North and South Dakota into east and west and forms part of the Nebraska border. The Missouri was once an artery of transportation. The need for flood control and hydroelectric power resulted in four major dams on the waterway, which transformed the waters of the Missouri into a sparkling deep blue and created four large lakes. These masses of ice wrinkled the land into rolling hills and rolled along on top of the rocks which remained to dot the fields of homesteading farmers.