Theodore Roosevelt NP, NorthJul 9, 2009
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view of northern badlands before reaching the Park
Little Missouri River flows through here, too
Texas Longhorns were brought here in 1884 after buffalo were all killed...
Even though it was late afternoon and the northern section of the Park is over 50 miles away, I just had to go see what that was all about. The woman at the visitor center in Bowman suggested that the South part is the best, but I be to differ with her. To me, the Northern section is a bigger version of the southern section in that the rock formations seem to be bigger and more dramatic. There are more buffalo here and I saw descendants of the Texas longhorn steer that were brought here at the beginning of the century after the buffalo were all gone.
The park's road here is only 14 miles long and it isn't a loop, so one travels the same road in and out of the park. Much of the road is under construction and workers are present until nightfall. Oh, and just before getting to this park, due North from the other section, the time changed to Central Time, so I lost and hour and got there just after the Visitor Center closed!
After visiting the Park, I decided to travel 15 more miles north to the town of Watford City for dinner instead of waiting another hour to get back to Medora. That was almost a mistake because there were no fast food joints and the ice cream store's grill was shut off at 8:45 PM and I got there at 8:47 PM their time. I was sent to a few places and finally found a place called TJs, open until 10 PM. I sat and ate a patty melt and "American Fries" (awful) and left at 9:45 PM, their time. The sun was just setting.
When I got back to the campground, it was almost completely dark, but the moon was starting to rise above the badlands. As I turned the corner into my loop, a buffalo was just getting off the road but into a campsite! It surprised me to see the back end of it in my headlights and I hope those campers were inside and not out at their fire pit!
