Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We've done scant research on the parks we're visiting. Some of that is due to lack of time and some of it is due to the fact that it wouldn't matter anyway. Our goal is to visit all of the parks, so even if we learned that a park wasn't great for one reason or another, we'd still go. So rather than research, we've chosen to be surprised upon arrival. We typically hit the park's visitors center first and ask a ranger what we should do. That has generally worked well.

With as little as I've known about other parks, I knew nothing at all about Theodore Roosevelt prior to our visit. Nothing. After visiting, I'm happy to report that this has been my favorite park so far.

The park encompasses land known as "the badlands." I knew there was a Badlands National Park in South Dakota, and I ignorantly assumed that those were the badlands. They were the originals, but it turns out there are "badlands" on every continent. It's a generic term that has come to refer to land that is so eroded away as to be useless for any sort of agriculture and near impossible to cross. Native Americans, French trappers, and early settlers all independently dubbed these lands some variation of "bad lands," so the name has stuck.

While useless, they sure are beautiful. And the animals don't seem to mind.

Our campsite was right outside the park. It was literally across a small river from us. We could see the badlands from our site. This was the closest we had ever stayed to a park (other than when we stayed inside Everglades), and we were determined to take full advantage. We ended up visiting 5 times throughout the week that we were there.

The park is made up of three "units": North, South, and Elkhorn, the latter of which is very small and simply has the foundation of Roosevelt's hunting cabin. We were staying outside of the South unit, but we did make our way up to the North unit before the week was out.

We were all excited to see bison and prairie dogs. It didn't take long. Within 5 minutes of our drive, we had spotted both. And by the end of the week, seeing either one was like seeing a squirrel. We probably spent an hour stuck in "bison jams," because bison definitely do not cede the right-away to vehicles, even on paved roads.

I thought it was fun to drive up to them and roll Julie's window down; she disagreed

Each unit has a single main road running through it. We drove the full length of each. We also spent many hours hiking trails through the back country. The scenery is stunning. Pictures cannot do it justice.

I'll admit that some of my awe likely comes from the fact that I grew up east of the Mississippi. In that part of the country, "beautiful scenery" consists of trees on ground that isn't flat. See a rolling hill? Beautiful!

It's just so different here. So different. And I love it.