I always enjoy it when we spend two ( or less often, three!) nights in one place on these road trips. It’s nice not to have to pack up and move on, to have a bit of a “rest” day. However, we rarely rest on our rest days! Today was a “rest” day but we were up early, breakfasted and out the door with our cameras shortly after 8am because we had the National Park North Unit in our plans for the day. The drive was through more of that vast grass plain that covers most of the Dakotas, but after an hour we suddenly found ourselves in badlands again – we’d arrived!
The North Unit receives far fewer visitors than the South Unit per year, mainly because it’s more isolated and there is no town in the immediate vicinity to make visits easy, but we found it was well worth the drive. There was a tiny visitor centre where we stopped briefly, before heading out on the 14 mile dive that takes you to the end of the park. Almost immediatly I was struck by the feeling that the badlands were easier to see throughout this park than they had been in the south unit. We enjoyed the colours in the layers of rock as we drove along.
However, when we climbed up to the grassy savannah area of the park we had a real surprise, the bison that we’d missed yesterday were all up here in the North Unit. First we saw a lone one or two off the road but eventually we found ourselves passing by, and driving through, several herds. You’re advised to keep your distance from these guys, the are NOT cows but it’s hard to do that when they’re right on the road with you!
We stopped at the Oxbow Bend overlook at the very end and admired the view, but by now the cloud had come over and it’s amazing what a difference the grey sky makes to the vibrance of the colors in the badlands.
Driving back we encountered the bison again, and shook our heads at one nitwit who had decided to get out of his car for a closer look. As I’ve said before there are nitwits everywhere!
Back in Medora by the middle of the day we changed into shorts before heading out to explore the little town. After our chilly weather over the last week it has suddenly become HOT again. The town really lives up to the “Western” style – there are saloons and timber boardwalks and hitching posts all over the place. Of course, though, its a tourists town so behind the timber frontages are many gift stores and cafes.
We decided to give the Cowboy Hall of Fame a miss and enjoyed just wandering past the pretty park instead and cooling off in a variety of the stores.
And of course, there’s a statue of Teddy Roosevelt to get friendly with.
Finally we decided to do that “rest” thing back in the hotel, although in our case “resting” means catching up on our blogs and processing videos etc 😂
Around six oclock we walked down the street to find somewhere for dinner – it was still HOT. Can’t get over the difference in weather in two days. We settled on the Little Missouri Saloon & Dining Room ( mainly because I think Neil couldn’t resist the idea of eating in the saloon!) We sat upstairs on the verandah looking up to the hills and ate a tasty meal of guacamole & chips for appetizer followed by burgers for mains. It was nice to see the sun glowing on the hills as it went down on a warm day.
I’ve really enjoyed Theodore Rooselvelt National Park, it’s exceeded my expectaiona. I hadn’t realised how extensive and scenic the badlands were in this area of North Dakota, and seeing the bison up close was definitley a bonus. Last nights pitchfork steak dinner and the musical were a real higlight of the trip – we were fortunate that we came when we did as the season closes next weekend. A fortnight from now Medora will be a really quiet little town. Tomorrow we head south…to South Dakota and yet another National Park.