Toadstool Geologic Park is located in the

Oglala National Grassland The Oglala National Grassland is a United States National Grassland in the northwest corner of Nebraska. It is in northern Sioux and northwestern Dawes counties, on the borders with South Dakota and Wyoming. It is in size and is one of the sma ...

in far northwestern

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

. It is operated by the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

. It contains a

badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...

landscape and a reconstructed sod house. The park is named after its unusual rock formations, many of which resemble

toadstools A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is th ...

About

Toadstool Geologic Park is said to be the "

of Nebraska" or the "desert of the Pine Ridge." The park is open 24 hours a day. Toadstool Park is north of

Crawford, Nebraska Crawford is a city in Dawes County, in the northwestern part of the state of Nebraska, in the Great Plains region of the United States. The population was 997 at the 2010 census. It was incorporated in 1886 and was named for the late Captain Emme ...

; to get to the park, take

Nebraska Highway 2 Nebraska Highway 2 (N-2) is a state highway in Nebraska consisting of two discontinuous segments. The western segment begins at the South Dakota border northwest of Crawford and ends southeast of Grand Island at an intersection with Intersta ...

/ Nebraska Highway 71 to Toadstool Road. There is a 1-mile loop trail within the park. There are many

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s along the trail; removing fossils is not allowed. Many fossils of large prehistoric animals such as

entelodont Entelodontidae, the entelodonts, are an extinct family of pig-like artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates) which inhabited the Northern Hemisphere (Asia, Europe, and North America) from the late Eocene to the Middle Miocene epochs, about 38-19 millio ...

s and

hyaenodon ''Hyaenodon'' ("hyena-tooth") is an extinct genus of carnivorous hyaenodont mammals from tribe Hyaenodontini, within subfamily Hyaenodontinae in family Hyaenodontidae,Malcolm C. McKenna, Susan K. Bell (1997."Classification of Mammals: Above the ...

s have been found here. Camping is available and there are two toilets. The Bison Trail to

Hudson-Meng Bison Kill The Hudson-Meng Bison Bonebed site, officially named the Hudson-Meng Education and Research Center, is a fossil site located in the Oglala National Grassland of Sioux County, Nebraska 20 miles northwest of Crawford. It contains the 10,000-year-o ...

is a 3-mile hike.

Nearby attractions

Fort Robinson Fort Robinson is a former U.S. Army fort and now a major feature of Fort Robinson State Park, a public recreation and historic preservation area located west of Crawford on U.S. Route 20 in the Pine Ridge region of northwest Nebraska. The fo ...

Nebraska National Forest The Nebraska National Forest is a United States National Forest located within the U.S. state of Nebraska. The total area of the national forest is 141,864 acres, or 222 sq miles (574 km2). The forest is managed by the U.S. Forest Service's ...

Chadron State Park Chadron State Park is a public recreation area located within the Nebraska National Forest, south of Chadron, Nebraska, in the northwestern portion of the state. The park's include a portion of the Pine Ridge escarpment and Chadron Creek. The ...

Trailside Museum of Natural History at Fort Robinson State Park The Trailside Museum of Natural History is located in the historic Army Theatre at Fort Robinson State Park, three miles west of Crawford, Nebraska on U.S. Route 20. History The building served as a theater and gymnasium for the Fort Robinso ...

References

External links

Toadstool Geological Park and Campground - US Forest Service Toadstool Geologic Park Photo & Links - Chadron State College

Federal lands in Nebraska Geology of Nebraska Protected areas of Dawes County, Nebraska United States Forest Service protected areas Landforms of Dawes County, Nebraska Parks in Nebraska Badlands of the United States {{DawesCountyNE-geo-stub