MEDORA, N.D. – Our tour of national parks continued this week with two days of sightseeing and hiking in Theodore Roosevelt N.P. in the badlands of western North Dakota. We saw lovely vistas of the Little Missouri River, lots of buffalo, and a rattlesnake at my feet.
The park is named in honor of the 26th president, who hunted and owned a cattle ranch in the area in the 1880s. It’s divided into two parts, the South Unit near Medora off Interstate 94, and the North Unit 50 miles up US 85. Both were busy but not crowded, with about a third of the license plates by my informal count from neighboring Minnesota.
On Tuesday we drove most of the Scenic Loop Drive in the South Unit, which was an out-and-back because a section of it was closed for road repairs. The highlight was the Wind Canyon Trail, a short hike to an overlook of the Little Missouri River that flows between the two units. Wind Canyon was full of rocks sculpted into smooth curves by the strong winds that blow through it. We saw a herd of bison grazing along the trail to the Old East Entrance Station.
On Wednesday, we drove more than an hour to the North Unit and then meandered along the 14-mile Scenic Drive. After touring both units, we agreed with our National Geographic Guide to National Parks that “Many people regard the North Unit as the more attractive of the two major portions of the park.”
Among the features we especially liked in the North Unit was the Cannonball Concretions Pullout, which featured large round rust-colored rocks bulging out of the buttes. Further up the road my dear wife dropped me off at a trailhead for the Caprock Coulee Trail so I could hike a mile and a half along a ridge to meet up with her at the River Bend Overlook. The Oxbow Overlook at the far end of the drive offered a beautiful vista of a bend in the river and the forest of cottonwood trees that thrive along the riverbank. All the views were framed by the eroded buttes of the badlands.
Both units are home to bison and wild horses. Here are shots of the bison we saw.
We got more excitement than we’d like on the “Little Mo Nature Trail” at the beginning of our time in the North Unit. I was about to turn off the paved main trail onto a side trail when I heard a loud rattle not two feet from my bare legs. I looked down to see a medium-sized rattlesnake with his eyes fixed on me and his forked tongue waving. I said something like, “Whoa!” and quickly backed up. With its rattle having done its work, the snake retreated into the grass. I did stay close enough to capture a video of his back side and the rattler that had spared us both a more unpleasant encounter.
The spirit of US presidents past has been present during our time in the Dakotas. There were the four presidents of Mt. Rushmore, of course, but I also learned that the Black Hills were a favorite retreat of President Calvin Coolidge when he was in office. In fact, he gave a speech in 1927 at a dedication of the beginning of the work on the monument. At Theodore Roosevelt N.P., we learned that its namesake had first visited here in 1883 and then again in 1884 after he had suffered the twin tragedy of his wife and his mother dying in his house on the same day, February 14, 1884. Roosevelt lived for a time in the Maltese Cross Cabin, which is still preserved with some of his relics on the grounds of the South Unit Visitor Center, seven miles north of where it was originally located.
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On Thursday we drove 230 miles east on I-94 to Jamestown, N.D. From here we’ll be traveling through Minnesota and Wisconsin visiting friends and family in my two home states.
Daniel Griswold's Blog 
The beauty of the wide open spaces. harry