Jun 26 2009
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, South Unit
I realize my past few Photo Fridays have been of really big things, but this week I’m changing it up a bit. Instead of larger-than-life man-made things, I’ll show off some of North Dakota’s natural beauty: Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the Badlands of North Dakota. These photos are from the South Unit of the park, near Medora. You’ll see the North Unit in a later post.
If you’ve ever thought that North Dakota is just flat and boring, I offer this evidence to the contrary.
The Badlands make me think of the landscape of another planet…I picture little aliens crawling out!
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That’s very amazing! I never thought of North Dakota with such landscape.
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Gorgeous. I will make it there in my lifetime for sure!
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Thank you for posting these! We’re planning to go there next week.
I remember reading that you have a food allergy of some kind in your family. Do you have any tips on finding restaurants in that area or on the long trip across North Dakota? I know Bismarck and Fargo will give us ample choices, but I don’t know about Medora and such.
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Very moonscape looking. I would liken that this park is big in scale? I never thought Nth Dakota would have this type of landscape. Thanks for sharing it.
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Elizabeth, you’re right–we have a son with a peanut allergy.
In Medora, we ate at the Chuckwagon buffet. I usually stay away from buffets, but the staff were accommodating, and things like plain mashed potatoes and noodles would be pretty hard to mess up, so I was comfortable there.
The young women working in the ice cream parlor offered to sanitize the scoop as soon as I mentioned his allergy.
I’ve heard that the pizza place is very good, and the food stand on the Chuckwagon patio, so those would be other options.
The Pitchfork Fondue (about which I’ll be writing soon) fries the steaks in sunflower or safflower oil (can’t remember which) and the brownie was the only thing we stayed away from in the side-dish line.
One thing about North Dakotans is that they’re friendly and bent over backwards when we had any questions. I found that to be comforting.
Yes, the park is very large; in fact, there are two units that are about 80 miles apart, with badlands all the way between and continuing down into South Dakota.
This is a really cool National park. It was one of the surprise stops on our trip west a few years ago. We were a bit ahead of schedule so we stopped and drove through. we liked it enough that it made us late and we didn’t make our planned mileage. We have vowed to go back and spend some days there.
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As Tim says, this was an unplanned stop on our trip west to Montana and Wyoming. We were pretty wowed by the park–it was one of the main reasons we’ve talked about doing a trip of just North and South Dakota to pick up many of the stops we missed (we stayed just one overnight in North Dakota and three nights in Custer, South Dakota).
This was my take on our visit to the park http://www.midwestguest.com/2008/10/north-dakota-surprise.html
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Linda, this is Taya, Laurie’s sister-in-law from Ohio. We will be out West the first 2 weeks of September.
From what I am mapping out so far we will be coming from Little Bighorn Battlefield (morning) and coming across 94 to Medora and stopping at Theodore Roosevelt National Park (afternoon). Looking like a 3 1/2 hr or so drive in-between…
How much time should we allow for the southern unit of the park. I think I read that there was a 36 mile loop? did I read right?
Our plan was to then continue on to Bismarck – but didnt know if that would be too much in one day. Basically, we can get in late to Bismarck – getting to the hotel late that night would not be a problem for us…
Any suggestions would be appreciated !
Taya, we did the loop in about an hour and a half. That was stopping several times to take photos, but not taking any of the spurs. We were told later that some of the side roads off the loop offer better views of the wildlife.
From Medora to Bismarck would be about a 2-hour drive. The speed limit in North Dakota is 75, so you’ll make good time.
Your plan should be doable, and you might even have some time for extra sights in Medora or Bismarck along the way.
Let me know if I can be of more help!
[...] Theodore Roosevelt National Park Posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 in National Park Service – Comments: (11) I realize my past few Photo Fridays have been of really big things, but this week I’m changing it up a bit. Instead of larger-than-life man-made things, I’ll show off some of North Dakota’s natural beauty: Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the Badlands of North Dakota. These photos are from the South Unit of the park, near Medora. You’ll see the North Unit in a later post. [...]
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