Highlights of the park's geological landscape include the Frenchman River Valley, the Seventy Mile Butte, and the badlands of Rock Creek.

In 1874, Sir George Mercer Dawson discovered Western Canada's first dinosaur remains[6] in the Killdeer Badlands during the International Boundary Survey.

[7] Grasslands National Park is on the traditional territory of the Blackfoot (Niitsítapi) people of the Canadian and American plains and is Treaty 4 land.

Highlights of the West Block include the Frenchman River Valley, a herd of over 300 plains bison as well as prairie dog colonies.

A 16-kilometre (10 mi) wide stretch of land on either side of the Frenchman River is an Important Bird Area of Canada called Grasslands National Park (west) (SK 024).

On 2 October 2009, in a ceremony at Belza House, the park was declared a dark-sky preserve,[16] and a small population of black-footed ferrets was reintroduced into the prairie dog towns after a 70-year absence.

Improved night-lighting practices under the dark-sky agreement ensure that the park remains dark at night, preserving a natural environment for all nocturnal wildlife.