Our next stop on this year’s adventure was Theodore Roosevelt National Park, in western North Dakota. Roosevelt visited the area as a young man after a personal tragedy. His time in Dakota Badlands profoundly shaped his conservation ethic and inspired his creation of the National Park System. This park memorializes the President’s legacy of conservation. He is quoted as saying, “I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota.”
Here’s a picture of President Roosevelt and the original Maltese Cross Cabin he stayed while visiting.
Dave and I loved exploring the Badlands National Park in South Dakota last year and we loved this one just as much. It is full of rugged buttes, colorful rock layers and dramatic canyons. It is split into three separate units. We stayed at a campground in the south unit and enjoyed a scenic drive, stopping at overlooks and partaking in several short hikes. As with most of the national parks, Murphy had to stay in the car–luckily the weather was cool. It was a bit hazy that day, so it was hard to capture the expansiveness of the area. If you zoom in a bit, you can get a better perspective.
While in the south unit, we saw wild bison herds roaming freely, wild horses on the buttes, and prairie dogs in their towns. Roosevelt named bison “the lordly buffalo” and fought to protect them. They were nearly extinct by the end of the 1800’s, primarily due to commercial hunting for their hides, called “The Great Slaughter”.
The next day, we drove 68 miles to the north unit and enjoyed more spectacular scenery. The pictures just don’t do the beauty of this national park justice with its vastness.
On one fun stop in the north unit, we were treated to cannonballs, which were formed inside the sediment layers of the badlands. Erosion is slowly exposing these unique buried treasures. They looked like large bowling balls scattered throughout the badlands.
Of course, no adventure of ours would be complete without Murphy adding his own twist. As the north unit is quite remote, I packed a lunch for Dave and I and had it in my zippered backpack. After returning from one of our short hikes, I grabbed Murphy for a quick potty walk around the parking lot. When I came back, Dave shared what he found. Murphy somehow had opened the zipper in my backpack, opened two square plastic containers with our PB&J sandwiches, ate the bag of Lays potato chips, and enjoyed two York peppermint patties, completed with the wrappers. Labs will be labs. My bad. I should have put my backpack in the back of the truck but I thought since it was zippered up, he couldn’t get into it. Wrong! Oh, and I could not find my Marionberry Lip Balm which I bought at Tillamook Creamery in Oregon. So, I thought he ate that too. Murphy, Murphy… Later that day, I looked under the seat and found my lip balm. Yes, there was dog slobber on it, but at least he didn’t eat that too. Luckily, he didn’t open the section of my backpack that had a few protein bars, so Dave and I munched on those as our lunch. Luckily, on our way back to the south unit, Dave stopped for fuel and there was a burger stand next door. I hopped out of the truck, walked over, and ordered a late lunch for us. Boy did that hamburger taste good!
Continuing our drive back to the south unit, there was a rest stop along State Road 85 called the “Painted Canyon,” complete with a Roosevelt National Visitor Center. It had a nice path along the rim of the canyon and a 4-mile trail to the bottom of the canyon and back.
I almost forgot! When we were camping in Yellowstone last year on our way back from Alaska, Billy the Bison roamed the campground. This campground had Bobby, Billy’s cousin, who gave both Dave and I a fright. On our first night, Murphy needed to go potty after dark and when Dave and Murphy started walking out of Mini-T, they felt a presence. Murphy starting barking. Dave could hear breathing. Dave turned on his flashlight, and there was Bobby, standing next to our picnic table, just about 5 feet away. Everyone took stock of the situation and Bobby decided to slowly walk away.
One morning when Murphy and I were on a sunrise walk, taking in all the beautiful fall colors, casually walking along the campground road at the apex of the loop, walking into a relatively blind corner. I looked up and literally 2 feet away from me was Bobby. He looked at us and snorted; I felt the air from his nostrils. Yikes! I quickly turned around and hightailed it to behind a van and then took a picture of him. Phew!
The third unit of Roosevelt National Park is the Elkhorn Ranch Unit, between the north and south units, which Roosevelt called his “home ranch” and its sometimes called the “Cradle of Conservation” because it is where his ideas about preserving wild lands really took shape. This unit is much more remote and is not easily accessible as the other two units are. The picture below is the ranch in Roosevelt’s time. I guess we know where its name came from.
Our next stop: South Dakota. We are continuing to slow our pace while heading back to Florida. Thanks for following along!
Seeing Bobby the Bison so close got my heart pumping Brenda, Missing the caretakers of the past Dave, and at least I got to go along for the rides Murphy. By the way, Bison smell!