The Great Northwest: Teddy Roosevelt National Park

 

 

Teddy Roosevelt National Park was a wonderful interlude on our long drive west.  The park features the North Dakota Badlands where a young, skinny, bespectacled Roosevelt went hunting buffalo.  He was enthralled with the area and returned many times, buying a ranch refuge where he said he spent his happiest times.  The Badlands were also what fueled his intense desire to preserve America’s wild lands as America’s greatest conservationist President.

Veins of coal sometimes catch fire and burn for years baking the surrounding sand and clay into hard red scoria that resists erosion.   

 

On the 36 mile loop drive we saw three separate bands of wild horses and a herd of buffalo that owned the road.

 

 

I loved hiking around the layers of rock weathered into fantastical shapes.   

 

In the evening we took in the Medora Musical, an entertaining mix of country music, humor and Teddy Roosevelt lore.