jesseslife.com

I’ve been visiting the national parks and following spring north. Therefore, I knew that I’d be hitting North Dakota (“We Put the North in Dakota”) and [tag]Theodore Roosevelt National Park[/tag]. After my surprise at Badlands, I decided to put everything I thought I knew about North Dakota (mostly from Frances McDonald’s movie “Fargo”) behind me and visit the park with fresh eyes.

As I am doing this, I passed a tall metal sign, saying “Visit the [tag]Enchanted Highway[/tag] and Regent, ND.” Wait, I heard about this on NPR. Text here. Audio here. Check it out, I’ll wait….

Back? Now you see why I had to visit! It’s cool, and these structures are huge. Their website has a great amount of detail if you are interested. The burger I got in Regent wasn’t so bad either. You can see how big these structures are by looking at Harold parked in front of a few of them. Worth seeing. As to not destroy the suspense, I didn’t put up my photo of “Pheasants on the Prairie”, my favorite.

I made it to Medora, North Dakota, the gateway to the South Unit of the Park late in the day. The park is divided into two “units” separated by 60 miles of highway, but both on the Little Missouri River. I decided to stay in the South Unit one night, and head to the north unit the next.

Forgetting how far north I was, I was surprised to see the sun so far up in the sky. I therefore had plenty of time to wander around the prairie dog town and campsite. Out of the edge of my eye, I caught a few people with cameras moving in that slow, deliberate way that shows that there are wild animals nearby. As I slowly rounded the stand of trees, I caught sight of a small herd of wild horses. Not more than 30 yards away were 7-10 horses, a few of them pretty young. While some ladies hopped in their Jeep and followed them as they worked their way up the valley, I took the initiative and cut across the grassy valley floor to the nearby picnic area. Judging from all the hoof prints by my campsite and the nearby Little Missouri River, I figured that the horses would stay in the area. I perched on the center of a group of picnic tables and waited. My patience paid off and I could hear the horses munching on the nearby manicured grass. I figured that I would stay still and let the herd approach me if they wanted. Guess these guys weren’t too afraid of people as they basically munched the grass all around me and the tables without giving me another look. I watched some of the yearlings “playing tag” down the road a few paces, while the largest of the herd watched from a distance. Very memorable.
Remember how I said Badlands was teeming with wildlife? This park put that one to shame on the animal front, the North Unit I visited even more so. It looked like it was stocked or something. Bison everywhere. Lizards, prairie dogs, birds of all kinds, deer all made their homes in the park and let me take pictures of them. I will have to work harder at this wildlife photography stuff. I either get animals sleeping, grazing or staring at me. More time and more luck should pay off, I hope.

Things not to miss at Theodore Roosevelt:

• Roosevelt’s Maltese Cross Cabin – model for a small home in which I’d like to live
• Wind Canyon Trail – odd, creepy rock formations
• Coal Vein Trail – Site of a 26 year (!) long fire in an underground coal seam.
• Caprock Coolie Trail – Nice walk along a hill face into a secluded coolie (valley)

I had great weather the entire time. Met a very cool ranger and park security guy at the visitors center. The ranger helped me with the difference between bison and buffalo, wild and feral horses and told me about the cowboy bar in town. As with all rangers in the park system, she was very helpful.

I’m off for a marathon drive to Grand Portage, MN to (finally) visit Isle Royale National Park. I’ll be backpacking in the remote island park from Wednesday until Sunday, so no more entries this week. See you next week!