Thursday we found ourselves driving back through South Dakota on our way up to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. This was not on our original itinerary, but we had a few extra days because our rendezvous with our friends Rick and Ann in Estes Park has been delayed by a week. Although the scenery as we drove through the northwest corner of South Dakota was not memorable, it was pleasant looking out over the rolling hills of prairie grassland, with hills and buttes scattered along the skyline. We got nervous when we crossed into North Dakota and saw CORN FIELDS AGAIN as we had had our fill of cornfields back in the Midwest!!!!!! Fortunately the corn fields gave way to the North Dakota badlands ( HA HA )
The campground we stayed at in Medora, ND didn’t have a lot to commend it to begin with, and even less to commend it when we realized how close we were to the railroad tracks. Unfortunately, the frequent trains apparently were required to sound their whistles multiple times as they passed nearby. Thank goodness for dual pain windows.Our initial impression of Teddy Roosevelt NP was a little disappointing. The Visitors Center seemed to be much more focused on giving a history lesson on TRs brief period of contact with the badlands over 100 years ago rather than providing a lot of information about what was in the park itself. The natural beauty of the park, however, overcame the deficiency in the visitors center. Teddy R NP was less stark and dry then the
South Dakota Badlands NP – it had more shrubs and small trees, many of which were already starting to change color as autumn apparently comes early in ND. The loop drive around the central portion of the southern unit of Teddy R NP offered an array of different views as we circled through the park. The most beautiful overall view was from the top of one of the highest buttes in the park, from which we could scan all across the park and well beyond. The park also had some wonderful loop trails, complete the guide maps, which helped explain many aspects of the interesting flora and fauna. We saw many places where buffalo had trampled prairie grass as they had rolled back and forth scratching their backs. And boy did we see many, many piles of buffalo dung!!!!!!!
We also took an interesting loop trail through an area which had been subjected to an underground coal fire which burned for 26 years, from 1951 to 1977. Amazing!!!!!! We saw areas that had collapsed when the underlying coal burned up as well as samples of the soil whose complete texture and appearance had been dramatically altered by being baked in the oven of a burning coal fire. We saw prairie dogs everywhere (who certainly didn’t seem to be very concerned about the cars driving by as they hunted through the grass right next to the road). We also had a few deer run across the road in front of us and saw a few of the buffalo who has made their presence so obviously felt as we hiked through the dung piles. The most awesome exposure to the native wild life, however, was when an owl swooped right in front of the truck as it was skimming along over a prairie dog town looking for dinner. Boy we thought we were going to hit the owl until it suddenly banked upward and away from the wind shield. Jo complained for the next 30 minutes because she had not been able to get her camera in position fast enough to capture our close encounter with the owl.
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