One Man’s Vision

Many people say that Theodore Roosevelt is the father of the National Park System that exists today.  His dream of conserving the natural beauty of the land, while using it responsibly, is why we have designated protected sites.  It seems only fitting that a National Park is named for him.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located in western North Dakota.  This land is also considered the badlands of North Dakota.  Roosevelt came here as a young man and fell in love with the beauty of it.  He returned to his home back east, where the following winter both his wife and mother died on the same day.  He came back to Medora and lived for a few years running a cattle ranch.  It is written that while he was here, he found himself again.

As soon as we entered the park we were able to see the actual cabin that Roosevelt lived in while he was here.  It’s a modest place, but one that had all the amenities for the day, i.e. a bed, a table, and a cook stove.

This land is really beautiful.  The colors of the grass and rocks change with every minute that passes.  There are also a lot of animals that call this park home.  In fact, there are seven designated spots of the park that are referred to as “Prairie Dog City”.  You can pretty much guess that there are hundreds of prairie dogs that live in these cities.

We thought we would spice it up and take a photo not looking directly at the camera.  Pretty artsy don’t you think.

There are also elk, bison, and wild horses that live here.  We only saw the bison.  These two were enjoying a snack together.

This herd was enjoying making the tourists wait while they casually strolled down the park road.

The scenic driving loop of the park takes about an hour and a half to drive around.  That is if you don’t stop at every pull off.  It was a nice drive, but in hind sight we should have gone out earlier in the morning for the chance to see more critters.

Back in Medora, we took advantage of the local campground laundry facilities to wash a week’s worth of dirty clothes.  We were getting dangerously close to having to flip our underwear inside-out.

Medora is a fun town.  Made up mostly of tourists.  One person told us that there are actually about 60 year-round residents.  Many still get around the old-fashioned way.

We took advantage of the mild late-summer afternoon to walk around the town and catch some of the sites.  There was a gunfight in the center of town.  The story goes that some of the old ranchers were not happy when the new ranchers came in and started putting up fences.  These two “old-timers” made it a point to cut down any fences they came across, thus leading to a shoot-out at the local saloon.

We had a couple of nice, low-key days here in Medora.  Our next stop is across the Canadian border.  Scott says we can’t use our cell phones once we cross the border.  I’m guessing that means that this will be the most “vacation” part of our vacation since we won’t be checking emails or text messages.  Wow, that sounds kinda nice.