Theodore Roosevelt first visited the North Dakota Badlands in 1883. He was an avid hunter and conservationist. Back in the 1800s, he was very aware of the devastating effects of America depleting it’s natural resources.
Medora, North Dakota
From Montana, we traveled to western North Dakota. We stayed at the Medora Campground which had full service and only 1/2 mile from the Roosevelt NP South Unit entrance. The campground was very busy because of the Medora Musical Revue, which looks back at the Wild West days.
Roosevelt National Park
After becoming President in 1901, Roosevelt was involved in establishing 150 National Forests, National Game Preserves, Federal Bird Reserves, 18 National Monuments, and 5 National Parks thereby protecting 230 million acres with the 1906 Antiquities Act.
Roosevelt NP, North Unit
The park is separated by 68 miles into the North and South Units. The North Unit had more dramatic Badlands, while the South Unit seemed to have more visible wildlife.
The Little Missouri River runs thru it.
Even though we saw less wildlife in the North Unit, we did see Bighorn Sheep, Bison, Deer and Prairie Dogs.
A concretion is a body of rock surrounded by sediment. Over time, the sediment erodes away exposing these concretion “cannonballs”.
South Unit, Roosevelt NP
This bison was illuminated by a passing car after the sunset.
There are about 400 bison in the South Unit. Large males can weigh 2000 pound and stand 6 feet at the shoulders.
Each evening that we were there, hundreds of bison would come up from the river to graze and roll in the dirt of this prairie dog colony. It was a majestic sight.
Jake really enjoyed watching the Prairie Dogs.
There were a few deer.
The rock formations were stunning.
Roosevelt National Park is one of the few National Parks that allow wild horses. Since 1970, the Park Service believed the horses were a significant historical part of the park.
A beautiful cloudless orange sunset sky with a group of wild horses still grazing.
Bismarck, North Dakota
Lunch in Bismarck was pretty good. One of the downtown alleys had numerous murals.
Barnesville, Minnisota
We stayed near Fargo, ND to stock up at their Costco. The RV park was run by the city. It wasn’t crowded, had full service, and great satellite reception. Otherwise, it was a needed opportunity to catch up and give the motorhome a bath. Jake enjoyed watching and stalking the numerous ground squirrels.
