We managed to find a campground in North Dakota that only left us with an hourish drive to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The park is divided up into three different units: North, South, and Elkhorn Ranch.  Elkhorn Ranch is the ranch that Roosevelt once owned and enjoyed spending time at.  It is a more remote section of the park on the western side.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get over there even though the remoteness is usually more of our thing.

We started out in the South Unit.  At the visitor center, we learned more about Roosevelt in the area.  In total, he didn’t really spend that much time there.  It was more of a vacation home for him.  He originally traveled to North Dakota to hunt bison.  Before returning home from his hunting trip, he purchased a majority interest in some ranch land, cattle, and a brand.   He divided his time between New York and North Dakota.  He returned to North Dakota to grieve after his first wife died in childbirth.  To make matters even worse for him, his mother died of typhoid on the same day as his wife and in the same house. 

At the visitor center, we were able to se the Maltese Cross cabin that Roosevelt had built as a place to live while he was at the first ranch that he purchased in North Dakota.  Later he sold that ranch and purchased a different ranch: Elkhorn Ranch.  During his time in North Dakota, he witnessed the misuse of many natural resources and realized that these resources would be gone permanently if something wasn’t done.  He began to make conservation a major focus of his political career. 

We took the scenic drive through the South Unit and then drove on to the North Unit, which was a little more remote and less-visited.  These badlands of North Dakota felt very much like Badlands National Park, except there seemed to be more grass up in the North Dakota area.  It was extremely hot, reaching over 100 degrees with hardly any opportunities for shade.  Most of the wildlife were probably hiding out in various cooler spots.  We did see some wild horses as well as a bison or two and plenty of prairie dogs.

We capped off the day in a campground in Watford City, ND where we were treated to what we call a “Damien Sunset” (full of purple and orange) and the rising of an almost full orange moon. 

Rebecca