By Kelli Bowen
North Dakota has the only National park that is named after a single person: Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It is one of my favorite places to visit and I try to go at least once annually. This week we visited while we hauled “She’s A Beaut” to Medora.
We visited the south unit the first night we were in Medora. TR National Park has a south unit by Medora, a north unit by Watford City and the Elkhorn Ranch area in between the two. The north and south units each have great opportunities for hiking, scenery, and wildlife viewing.
We stopped at one of the first pull-offs in the Park to admire the scenery, and there were bison below in the valley. I decided to snap a photo of the girls, and I noticed something moving behind them in the frame: an elk!
We also drove by prairie dog towns, the first one we didn’t stop and get out because a bison was also hanging out and bison can run up to 35 miles an hour, and pretty sure I cannot. When we stopped at the bison-free prairie dog town, we shut the pickup off and stretched our legs as the prairie dogs barked at us and the girls tried their best prairie dog impressions.
We also saw the burning coal vein fire, where Miss E asked “Is that a volcano?!?” After a quick NPS.gov search, we found that these natural fires can be started by lightning, wildfires or combustion. these fires are also the reason for the brick-red clinker (scoria) layers in the hills. The coal veins bake the rock above causing bright red clinker.
As it started to get dark, we drove a few more miles into the Park. The whole south unit loop is 36 miles, but part of it was closed and driving it takes awhile with stopping for photos, critters and hiking. We saw a few more bison and made our way back to “She’s A Beaut” for a snack and bed.
The next morning when deciding what to do for the day, the girls both said shopping, Hubby said he just drives and I said, “Let’s go back to the Park and do some hiking before it gets hot!” It was only 71 degrees when we left for the Park, so it was totally comfortable. In fact Miss E claimed she was “cold” our first two stops.
We went out on some walks, made it to the top of Buck Hill, saw a bunch more bison and made it all the way to the “road closed” sign and back. Then on the way back, we saw wild horses!
If you get a free afternoon or week off to spend in North Dakota, may I suggest some time in Theodore Roosevelt National Park…you may just find yourself a new North Dakota tradition.
Kelli makes her home in Cass County with her husband, two daughters (8 and 5) and two dogs. She works for a regional seed company by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend and writer by night.
Other popular posts from Kelli: