roberts prairie dog town

Loved the little guys, they are skittish if you get too close. But they are so much fun and so cute.

We wrote a review on the Badlands Wall about the Badlands National Park. This is where we first mentioned these adorable entertainers. Prairie Dogs are like people in a small village town, chatting back and forth to each other and popping in and out of their burrows. If you listen and pay attention, you can hear them speak. I bet we spent over an hour watching these fascinating critters. Just stop, look, and listen! Their "town" is not on the main road, so you will want to get directions and information about them from the Ben Reifel Visitor Center.

Because this is part of the Loop Road there are few visitors. I visited in August when the park was crawling with people but sat and watched the prairie dogs alone for an hour. Remember to move slow and be quiet.

You can reach the Roberts Prairie Dog Town by taking the Sage Creek Rim Road, a dirt road, five miles west of the Pinnacles Entrance. There are signs warning that contact with the prairie dogs may be dangerous because they can carry diseases, one of which is the plague. You will recognize their mounds and their scurrying about.

These busy little prairie dogs remind me the busy dwarfs. They pop up to see what has stopped to look at them. They scurry from hole to hole getting things done before their precious sun disappears. This isn't the main attraction of the park, but it's certainly worth stopping to see this boom-town!

Very cool to see wild prairie dogs up close, Roberts Prairie Dog Town seems to span for miles, the buffalo herds also travel through this area.

This might not be the main reason you visit the Badlands but it's a very nice stopping point. You see a few dogs whistling and chirping warnings but there are plenty of them to photograph. Many, of course, are underground but if you get there during the warmer part of the day, they will likely be scampering around.There is a gravel dirt road that you will need to navigate to get to this location. It won't harm your vehicle and besides, you are probably going slow to view all of the spectacular scenery anyway.The prairie dogs are a very humorous interlude to a gorgeous day at the national park.

Driving through the Badlands to the west, you'll come across this well-populated community of prairie dogs. Being from Colorado, we see them all the time, but if you've never gotten close to the little guys, this is the place! They are all over the roads and fields---go SLOW! Families will be delighted to see and hear them! You must drive to the Prairie Dog Town--gravel road, but suitable for passenger vehicles.

When I was here ten years ago, it was THE place to see prairie dogs. Now, it appears that there are several places in the park where you can get up close and personal to these cute animals. It's still worth the drive, though. The two miles of dirt roads keeps the crowds down a bit. I love prairie dogs.

Looks of dogs. If your quiet you can hear them bark warnings at each other. Watch the road as they can be very close.

A little off the beaten track, but there were hundreds of them! Just few km off the loop road towards the west end.

Prairie Dog town was pretty cute although there are a couple locations of the Prairie dogs..fun to watch..don't feed the Prairie Dogs the salt in human food can kill them..and they can be riddled with flees!

The coterie of prairie dogs are fun for all. Some are braver than others. The kids had fun trying to move as slowly as possible to get as close as possible. Probably one of our favorite photos on the trip is of the kids, on their bellies, right next to the hole, with the prairie dog sitting up looking at them. We hit the area closer to the end of our loop drive, but it was a nice time to be there, as the kids were tired from all the climbing and hiking in the bad lands. This is a nice flat expanse with a large pull off for cars. It's a great photo op.

There are Prairie Dog towns all over the Badlands. I wonder why this group of mounds got named and not all of the others. Anyway, if you are touring on the Badlands Loop road, keep an eye out and you'll see vast Prairie Dog towns - one of them is called Roberts Prairie Dog Town - with the little squirrels scurrying from one hole to another. Don't bother to get out of your car as this will only set off a whole colony's-worth of squealing and hiding. This is not the zoo. Stay in your car and they'll eventually come out for some photo ops. It's great fun and worth a stop - just don't make this a destination - you're just passing through.

This area seems to be evolving a bit from a couple of decades ago. I guess, the entire park is evolving since the Badlands lose about an inch every year due to wind and rain erosion. The prairie dogs are fun to see, especially if you're with friends or family that haven't seen them before. It seems like every time that we're there, there is a bison / buffalo laying down in the distance and a couple of folks (let's face it, they're always guys) that will walk out to it and take some photos. How they haven't been killed by the bison yet is beyond me.