Badlands Inn

If I could give this place a lower rating, I would. We arrived to find that the office door was stuck or locked. After banging for some time, someone opened the door and checked us in. You will notice immediately that the motel (and it is a motel, not an inn) is sagging. Note that there is no elevator. So if you have a room on the second floor, be prepared to lug your suitcases up a dilapidated staircase with chipping plywood. On your way to the room, you will have to roll your suitcase through bird droppings because they have made their nests in each and every light fixture and crevice.

We finally got to our room, opened the door, and were greeted with an overwhelming smell of floral deodorizer. My youngest daughter started crying because it was giving her a headache. After we aired out the room, the smell went away. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of it. We had a huge dust bunny in between the beds and a large hairball in the bathroom. The wood flooring had been installed incorrectly, so there were huge gaps in the floorboard...just what you want to see in a motel with dirty floors.

I think the icing on the cake was when we awoke the next morning to take showers and had NO HOT WATER. I can't believe this place hasn't been shut down.

If there was any bright side to our stay here...and believe me, I looked hard...it's that there was a decent continental breakfast and the motel is only a mile from the badlands.

Nice views and large clean room (2 queen). Very close to park entrance and visitor center, might as well be in the park. Don't count on breakfast, it's very basic, but the restaurant at cedar pass is excellent for breakfast, lunch and dinner. One of my favorite places for food in the parks, especially the Sioux taco.

After driving for over 20 hours from Michigan this was our first stop. I had planned to take a shower then get some pictures of sunset over the badlands... after taking an admittedly cold shower I collapsed on the bed only to awaken at 5am.

There is nothing fancy about this motel but it serves it's purpose as a place to get some sleep in the badlands. Would have liked a hot shower after that much time on the road, but I was so tired I did not even care.

The owners were friendly the next morning after I got back from taking pictures.