TR NP

From the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center we traveled west, paralleling the MO, to the ND Badlands and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I didn't know there was a TR NP. Did you?

TR, the park brochure tells us, remarked "I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota." Roosevelt first came to ND on a hunting trip in 1883, became interested in the cattle business and became a partner in one ranch. A year later he bought his own ranch. Seeing the damage done to the land and wildlife habitat by overgrazing motivated his advocacy of conservation. He became president in 1901 and established 18 national monuments, 51 wildlife refuges, and five national parks.

The TR NP was established in 1978. This Wikipedia website has a good, concise history of the park. This excerpt adds the personal dimension to the story:

In 1884, after the death of his wife and mother (on the same day), Roosevelt traveled to his North Dakota ranch to rebuild his life and to recover from the tragedy. The badlands were a catharsis for him and although he returned east several times, for most of two years he ranched in the area and noted his experiences in pieces published in eastern newspapers and magazines. Returning east and back into politics, Roosevelt would forever associate himself with the vanishing frontier and the life of the western cowboy and rancher.

I’ve got several books about scenic drives, and one of them raved about this one: the 14 mile cul de sac to the Little Missouri Oxbow overlook in the North Unit of the park. So, that's what got this stop included on our carefully researched travel plan.

The drive has hills, river, buffaloes, and badlands. We also found road construction, thanks to stimulus money, a sign said. Shovels at work on a shovel-ready project - we saw two guys actually using shovels. We had a couple of 15 minute waits while large semi-trailer dump trucks carried out damaged pavement and delivered new roadbed material. At one of these stops we met a flagman (holding a STOP/SLOW sign, not a flag) who had come across the state from Fargo to work on this project. Susie befriended him and learned his life story by offering him sunscreen. Too late, he said.

Here are a few pix.

Some professional pictures at this link.


We enjoyed the grass and sky vistas in the high, uneroded areas of the TR NP as well as the canyons and eroded features of the badlands. The side trip, even with the construction delays, was worth it.

From the TR NP it was a short drive north to the White Buffalo campground, in Watford City, ND. This was our most primitive campground, yet. Here are the picnic table and chairs provided at our site.

Then, there was this example of campground art:

Side story: when I first called to see if they had an RV site available (a question that must have shocked the owner) I punched in the wrong area code, 702 instead of 701, and got a pizza joint in Las Vegas. That made for a short, confusing conversation.

We’re at the extreme west of the Central Time Zone, as well as being just a few miles south of Canada, just a couple of days after the summer solstice, so the sun goes down very late. Still good daylight at 10:00pm. It’s funny, for a time today, miles southeast of here, we were in the Mountain Time Zone. Guess people in those counties didn't want 10:00pm daylight.

Tomorrow Montana.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob