North Dakota & Theodore Roosevelt National Park

North Dakota caught us by surprise.  It was a state that we never really had on our list of visiting, but when we looked at the map and the location of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, it just made sense on our way east.  It took us two days to get across Montana, which was partly due to a major windstorm coming off the east side of the Rockies.  It was blowing 35-45 consistently with gusts in the mid 60’s and felt a bit dangerous pulling a large sail behind us.  In fact, we saw one high profile delivery truck coming down the highway at us at a 30 degree lean with it’s inside tires just barely touching the ground.  We didn’t catch the news that evening, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if a few lightweight, high profile vehicles might have been tossed off the road. 

We pulled into the Lewistown, MT Kiwanis RV (thank you Campendium) wayside, thankful to still have all ten of our tires securely on the ground.  The Kiwanis park is a free roadside “RV Park” with no hookups, but no charge, either, which is great if you are just passing through.  It seemed most were doing just that, as a few others rolled in after us and then were out at the crack of dawn.

After a good night's sleep (the wind did die down), it was off to Sully Creek State Park in west North Dakota.  A short drive down a gravel road from Medora, ND sits the park, nestled in a picturesque bend in the Little Missouri River.  The park had wide open spaces and beautiful old oaks in full bright fall color.  In Oregon, you have to book state parks nearly six months in advance to get into the decent parks, but we booked this one just a few days prior and it was one of the best parks we have ever stayed in and bonus….we even had 50 amp power!

Theodore Roosevelt National Park has got to be one of the best parks that is not on most people's radar.  It was an area that shaped the young Roosevelt before he became President and responsible for starting the National Park system and the federal Forest Service.  The south entrance to the National Park entrance is just up the road in Medora and after a stop at Roosevelt’s reconstructed cabin at the visitor center, we wound our way around the park.  Maren immediately spotted a GIANT bull bison perched on a ledge just above the road.  It was just the right distance to get a great view, but not feel too close in case he got the urge to shoo us off.

Other stops included prairie dog towns where we giggled at the fat little rodents chasing each other around with their black tails wagging in the air.  We hiked through Wind Canyon, a beautiful wind carved sandstone canyon that felt more like Pacific City, Oregon than North Dakota.  We barely kept our feet on the ground at the top of Buck Butte, as the wind rocketed across the plains nearly blew us off one of the highest points around.  We watched a herd of wild horses graze and a small foal nurse from its mama.  We spotted other herds of bison roaming the park and imagining what it might have looked like in this area 150 years ago with thousands of these animals rumbling across the plains.

There were very few people in the park itself, which was great.  I am not sure if this was due to Covid, just the time of year, or both, but it reminded Juli and I a bit of our safari drive through Kruger National Park in South Africa.  Few people, similar, beautiful open rolling landscapes, and unique wildlife, seemingly around every corner. 

The famous Maah Daah Hey trail starts right at Sully Creek campground and winds its way 144 miles north to the north unit of Roosevelt National Park.  On our final day in the area, the kids and I decided to mountain bike the trail from Sully Creek State Park to Medora.  It’s a mixed use trail with hikers, bikers, and horseback riders, although we saw no one else that day on our ride.

I had glanced at a trail map a few days prior and I guessed it may have been a few miles from Sully Creek State Park to Medora, so I didn’t even bother throwing in a bottle of water.  I was wrong.  It started with us wading and pushing our bikes across the Little Missouri River, fortunately, we were prepared for this.  We then climbed several miles up to the top of the surrounding hills, sometimes pushing, sometimes riding.  Despite it being longer and more strenuous than I was expecting, the kids did amazing and it was one of the best mountain bike trails I had ever been on.  Fast, open, hard packed single track winding its way around sandstone cliffs and beautiful open grasslands.  Halfway in, we came across a sign that pointed out that we would be passing through a bighorn sheep lambing area for the next two miles.  Although we didn’t spot any wildlife on this ride besides whitetail deer it was a ride that we will remember.  And of course, we finished it off the best way we could….big ole’ ice cream cones and smiles.