Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND, Part 1

We crossed the Continental Divide and we were shocked! What? We thought that ran through WY and CO. This was in North Dakota. Hum, must learn more and I did. This one is the Laurentian Divide, although the sign just said Continental Divide.

Landscape Changing to Rolling Hills, New Salem, ND 08/25

Continuing on our travel day, as we passed Jamestown, ND, we waved at our friends, Bridget & Richard, who were boondocking at the bison center. They followed us about 1/2 hour later. The landscape was a lot of farms and rolling hills. Kevin mentioned how he was surprised the area isn’t “flat flat flat.” Close to Theodore Roosevelt National Park we saw oil and natural gas pumps.

Painted Canyon, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND 08/25

We stopped at Painted Canyon, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and it is beautiful! The land is relatively flat then drops like crazy to layers of different kinds of sediment/rocks/minerals. That is what this whole National Park is. 

I am glad I had looked up the population of Medora, ND, the other day and knew ahead of time that it is tiny. Even Theodore Roosevelt National Park warns on their website about very few groceries, gas, etc in this town. Definitely a tourist town. We went through and to Cottonwood Campground which is inside the national park. As Bridget later said, her mouth hung open in an awe and she had never seen anything like it.

Friends Richard & Bridget Camping With Us, Cottonwood Campground, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND 08/25

We pulled up to the water station, next to the campground host building. I went over and said we had reservations and asked if I needed to do or know anything. Thankfully the lady spoke clear enough that my voice-to-text app worked for some of her words (I am deaf). Then I asked if they had any openings on the first come first serve, which is odd site numbers. Yes, she did. I told her we had friends 1/2 hour away and they would like to come. Kevin had walked over and the lady said she and Kevin would ride around on the golf cart and find a spot. He told me how to turn off the water when the tank was full. She found a buddy site that is awesome and moved us there; sites 28 and 30. Our door side and their front meet together in a wide spot for gathering. Awesome. We were so thankful for the work she put into it to make it happen. Soon Bridget & Richard pulled in. 

Kevin and I were so happy to see the juniper trees with the light blue berries on them. Sage all over and it smells great. After getting set up, everyone got in our truck and went on the scenic loop. Just gorgeous! We saw wild horses, 2 bison (2 different places), and a prairie dog town. One sign said you could see a butte 23 miles away. I learned the black-tail prairie dogs have burrows that go down 3 – 9 ft deep. They are sure fun to watch. The loop is closed for construction on the last part, we knew it already, and didn’t mind seeing the other direction. 🙂

The Coal Vein Nature Trail is just under a mile. This place was an underground coal fire from 1951-1977. The land even gave way. But since that time, the area has grown of grasses and trees and bushes. It was a good hike and neat to see the views. We enjoyed it. 

Traffic Jam Of Bison, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND 08/25

On the way to the trail, there was a traffic jam. Traffic jam of bison. LOL It was a whole herd of them, on both sides of the road. You know how a dog will run back and forth in the back seat of a truck? That was me! Back and forth taking pictures and watching. We even saw a bison nursing her baby. 

Bullet Hole In Theodore Roosevelt’s Undershirt, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND 08/25

On our way to Medora for lunch, Bridget said for us to stop at the south unit Theodore Roosevelt National Park Visitor Center and we did. They had a good movie with captions (place gets an A for that) and a small museum. I liked seeing the pictures of the times when Theodore Roosevelt was here. They even have the shirt with the bullet hole in it from when he was campaigning and someone shot him! He continued the speech saying, “I will make this speech or die.” Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is being built here in Medora. It is suppose to open July 4, next year. 

Lunch was at Boot’s Bar & Grill and yeah…wonderful to be back in an area where food has flavor! All 4 of us mentioned how flavor had been lacking in many places we just came from. We needed gas for our generator and Richard needed a few groceries. We went to the only place in this tiny town that sells both. But oh my goodness, not much food to buy, mostly tourist souvenirs and lots of alcohol. There we saw the high price of Campbell’s soup – $4.19! This is due to the it being the only place for miles.

Let me add here about Campbell soup cream of mushroom. As I have mentioned several times, I really enjoy grocery shopping and it has been very interesting to see the difference in them around this country. I can tell a lot about the area just by what they stock, especially their produce section. Some places I can’t even find basic baking spices and ingredients so I know that area doesn’t do a lot of baking and cooking from scratch. HA I started noticing the prices of Campbell soup cream of mushroom at each place. I should have been writing them in this journal but I didn’t until recently. The lowest has been $1.47, in Dickinson, ND, and the highest has been $4.79 at Mackinac Island. 

Kevin’s Pic: Charla & Bridget, Catching Sunset, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND 08/25

After dinner that evening we took off to catch the sunset. Well, the spot we wanted was a little farther then we remembered and we barely got the sun setting. It gave us great laughs because on the way, of course, there were wild horses in the road and cars in front of us stopped. We drove around. HA

Even with trimming down my journal entries, there is so much more to share with you about the week here so I am going to stop here and then post Part 2 probably on Tuesday or Wednesday coming up. 😃