Teddy Roosevelt National Park

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Our next stop would bring us into North Dakota. A state we have never been to before. Our destination is Theodore Roosevelt National Park near the town of Medora ND on the far western side of the state. We had investigated camping in the area and had decided on a US Forest Service campground just to the west of TRNP on Interstate 94. This is a first come, first served campground with only 36 sites and from the sounds of it, many of these sites will be too small for our rig, but we had a backup plan just in case. 

The drive was just a bit longer than our arbitrary maximum, but 212 miles wasn’t too bad. Most of the drive is north on US 85 then west on I-94 for about 25 miles. This part of northern South Dakota and southern North Dakota is fairly desolate. A strong wind out of the west made for less than ideal driving conditions. We found a smallish rest area to pull over for lunch near Buffalo SD and a truck stop in Bowman ND to make sure we had plenty of fuel since our planned campground doesn’t have electricity. We made it to Buffalo Gap without issue other than a storm was rapidly approaching. We unhitched the Jeep and drove around the two loops trying to identify which sites might work for us. Two sites up from the campground host was a nice wide and deep site that nearly looked too good to be true. We thought that maybe it was a second campground host site but it was available as the tag on the post showed that whoever was here had checked out early today. Chris parked the Jeep in the site while I trotted back to bring the motorhome around.

Having just stayed in another forest service campground in Custer SD, it was interesting to compare the two. Neither of them have utilities on site. Bismarck Lake in Custer was about $27 per nite while this one is $6. Bismarck Lake had pit toilets, no showers and no dump station. This one had pit toilets, showers and a dump station. Buffalo Gap campground is quite the bargain. The campground host stopped by to chat with us for quite some time. We compared notes on places we have traveled and gave us some pointers on things to check out while in the area. We are only here for 5 nights but it’s nice to get additional insight from someone that has spent time in the area. 

Our Primo $6 Site

For our first full day in the area, we headed into the national park. It’s an easy 8 mile drive to the southern unit visitor center. That is one thing worth mentioning about this national park, there are two distinct units - the north and the south. The more popular south unit is right next to I-94 and pretty easy to access. The north unit is an additional 70 mile drive. Since we are only here for 5 nights, we decide to skip the north unit this time and possibly save it for another trip. We check out the visitor center and get info about what there is to do here. Just behind the visitor center is the cabin Teddy Roosevelt first used when he would come to North Dakota to hunt.

Teddy's Old Cabin 

The 36 mile Scenic Loop Drive would normally be the way to drive around the park to see most of the sights. Unfortunately there is about a 4 or 5 mile stretch of it that is closed to vehicles. Part of the drive had a landslide and other sections have deteriorated too much for car travel. Chris asked about bicycling that section and was told it was permitted but was then shown pictures of some of the washed out road and decided we would skip that idea as well. We decided that driving the bulk of the scenic loop was better than not doing it at all. There are plenty of pull-outs along the way, with lots of spectacular views. 

Scenic View at TRNP with I-94 on Far Left

Pretty Sego Lily

We stopped at the Peaceful Valley Ranch since this would be the starting point for one of the hikes we were hoping to do while we’re here. This hike crosses the Little Missouri River just a quarter mile from the trailhead. The park had only recently deemed the river to be low enough to be safely crossed but we figured we wanted to see for ourselves what was in store. The water was moving pretty fast and the crossing was about 150 feet wide, but without entering the water, we couldn’t really gauge the depth. As luck would have it, a family of four showed up to do the hike. We talked to them briefly before they crossed. The parents had done the hike several years ago but their kids were old enough now to come along. So we waited around as they got prepared to cross. We learned three things from their crossing: 1 - pay attention to the sections of water with great disturbance since there are larger rocks in those areas; 2 - bring along some sort of water sandals instead of going barefoot; 3 - use hiking sticks. After we saw them safely cross, we wandered around the ranch a bit. It isn’t clear how this facility is used as part of TRNP but there were a handful of horses in one of the corrals. 

Mom and Daughter Start to Cross

Horse Wants to Go for Ride

Strange Bugs Having Fun!

We continued our Scenic Loop drive and got another glimpse of the Little Missouri River at an overlook. I’m glad our river crossing isn’t along this section of the river. We did a few of the shorter walks along the way at a few of the parking areas. There are so many great views in the park. It is very different from the relatively flat landscape to the east or west along I-94. We spotted one lonely bison along the side of the road and saw a few others at some distance away. Another thing we found while wandering around the park were prickly pear cacti. We were surprised that this was growing here given how cold and snowy the winters are in this area, but apparently they are hardier than we thought. We eventually got to the end of the loop at the Badlands Overlook which did have a similar look to Badlands National Park. 

Another Little Missouri River View

Bison Counting the Cars Going By

Prickly Pear Cactus in Bloom

Badlands Overlook View

The next day was to be fairly nice (or so we thought) so we decided to go for a bike ride. The campground host had seen our bikes and told us about the Buffalo Gap Trail that can we taken right out of the campground area. Rather than being conventional and simply taking the trail from the day use area, we decided to head up a Jeep road we had noticed when we had done a walk around the campground earlier. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake. It was uphill, the road wasn’t in great shape and it really didn’t come back around the way we wanted it to. After 2 miles, we finally came across a possible bike path, but since it wasn’t labeled, we ended up continuing to Buffalo Gap Road. It worked out okay since it took us past Buffalo Gap Guest Ranch which was our backup camping plan had we not found a spot where we were at. From the looks of things, the small campground would have worked out fine and looked like it may have electric hookups.

Buffalo Gap Ranch

Just beyond the ranch, we ran into the bike trail and continued on our way following the trail to the east. The scenery was nice and the trail was in fairly good condition. That’s not to say that Chris didn’t need to walk her bike at some of the “scary” sections. Being a open range cattle area, we did run into a few gates along the path. These gates were interesting. As I  approached the first one, my mind was confused as to how the heck they opened. It seemed to be trapped in such a way that it couldn’t swing in or out. Then it dawned on me, they swing up and down. They are a little heavy and it might be a pain to hold it open while getting the bicycle thru but with the two of us we had no problems getting the bikes while the other person held the gate up. After a bit, the trail turns towards the south and we cross under the Interstate thru a heavy duty tunnel. I suspect more cattle come thru here than cyclists.

Small Pond Along Trail

Up Swinging  Gate

Tunnel Under Interstate

There was more pretty countryside with some hills but none of them too serious. It was  just as we got to the intersection with Old Highway 10, that we realized there were some unexpected thunderstorms headed our way. We checked out our maps and realized that we could go west on the road and it would cross Buffalo Gap Road which takes us back to camp. We figure this was safer than simply heading back the way we came in case the rain showed up. Of course I decided to do a “short” detour in the opposite direction to look for a geocache. In hindsight, that 20 minutes might have made all the difference in what happened next. 

Don't Go Over the Edge of Trail!

Chris Walks Bike Down Hill

Pretty View with Ominous Clouds Forming

Small Creek

Just as we turned north on Buffalo Gap Road, it started to rain - not a torrential rain but fairly steady. The problem was this road is dirt and looks like it may have been recently graded. Plus we had about a 450 foot hill to climb. The soil here is basically clay that gets really sticky and slick when wet. Our knobby tires loaded up with clay so quickly that even on a hill I could have ridden up without issue had it been dry, my rear tire would just spin without moving me forward. So we are now walking our bikes up a hill that at points was a 12 to 15 percent grade. The tires still were loading up with mud and would get so bad they would clog up the fork or rear chain stays so they wouldn’t even spin. We had to scrap off the mud a couple times just to continue pushing the bikes uphill. When we finally got to the top of the hill the rain had stopped, we cleaned off the tires again and headed down the hill with mud flying off the tires every which way. We made it back to camp and had to spend over an hour cleaning up the bikes. The twenty minute detour for a cache cost us plenty! But that said, it was a fun 15.5 mile ride.

The following day was going to be our long hike out of Peaceful Valley Ranch. We brought along our water sandals and a towel so we could more easily cross the river and dry off our feet before donning our hiking boots. The water may have been a bit higher from yesterday’s rain and it got up to the bottom of my hiking shorts but we managed to make it across without falling over! We overcame the first obstacle. At the trail intersection, we decided to try the Big Plateau Trail. It starts out somewhat steep and was plenty muddy in spots but we eventually made it to the big plateau. The trail wandered thru a pretty large prairie dog town. Actually there were so many of them and they were all sounding the alarm as we went thru, that calling it a town was a bit of an understatement. There were lots of wildflowers in bloom and it was a pretty nice hike. Off in the distance we could see a herd of bison.

After Our River Crossing

Take a Right

Entering Prairie Dog Metropolis

A Sea of Scarlet Globemallow

Prairie Dog Sentry

Just beyond the plateau, the terrain got much more interesting. Lots of areas that reminded us of Badlands National Park. At another trail intersection, we follow the Maah Daah Hey Trail for a quarter mile before turning west on the South Petrified Forest Trail. 

Hilly Terrain

It was then that we started to suspect that the herd of bison we had seen earlier in the hike were going to be pretty close to our hiking trail. Since the trail isn’t super well defined and there was a slight rise in the land, it wasn’t until we got about 1000 feet from the herd of approximately 100 bison that we realized that one of the big males was on the right hand side of the trail with the rest of them on the left hand side. We knew we needed to take a left hand turn onto the Lone Tree Loop Trail but it wasn’t clear whether we would be better off going wide right or wide left. As we were slowly approaching, we could sense a good number of them were standing there and watching us intently. We decided to go wide right and keep a safe (or what we hope is safe) distance. At one point one of the males tried to mount another bison. While interesting to see, it did make us a bit more apprehensive about the disposition of these beasts.

Our Faint Trail Heading Towards Bison Herd

A Bison Tries to Cut Us Off  by Crossing Our Trail

Since the herd is slowly moving, our route has to push out at times. The  good thing was that the terrain was fairly flat and the vegetation was pretty low, so adjusting our route to account for the herd didn’t get influenced by the conditions on the ground. We were able to see the trail marker where we wanted to turn left but needed to swing wide again since some of the herd had already crossed over that trail. We managed to get past the herd and intersect the Lone Tree Loop Trail and continue on our way. About 15 minutes past the bison, we stopped for lunch under the shade of a tree.

Bison Herd Blocked Our Trail Marker.

Terrain Gets Interesting Again

Pretty View Near Lunch Spot

The rest of the hike had lots of taller grasses and weeds to go thru. Long pants may have been a better choice for this section. There were also several water crossings we we needed to negotiate. They weren’t super wide, but the one I checked with my hiking stick was over 2 feet deep which provided plenty of motivation to find a narrower part to cross and hope our jumps don’t fail us. We eventually hit the Ekblom Trail which should take us back to our river crossing point. It was neat to see the big plateau from below as we passed by. We had stashed our water sandals and towel in the tall grass by a tree 15 feet from the trail figuring nobody would find them - we were right. After switching back to sandals, we made the crossing back thru the Little Missouri River without issue and got back to the car with a 10 mile hike under our belts and having survived an interesting experience with 100 bison.

Chris Looks for a Safe Water Crossing Point

Tomamichael Well Along Lone Tree Loop

Looking Up at Big Plateau

Chris Crosses Little Missouri River

Our Hiking Track with Actual Trail in Red at Bison Encounter

With just one full day left at TRNP, we needed to fit in yet another hike. On the west side of the park are two petrified forest areas. Neither of these areas are easily accessible. We were probably within a mile or so of the South Petrified Forest area on yesterday’s hike but that would mean at least another 10 mile hike. And the North Petrified Forest area would probably be in the 13 to 16 mile range. Neither of those were going to happen. The other option, and the one we went with, was to drive up just over 6 miles on West River Road and come into TRNP from the west. The road only has an I-94 westbound exit so we need to drive past one exit and turn around. This is definitely a dusty and washboard riddled road but we follow all the turns as directed and make it to a small parking area that had three other cars when we arrived. 

The first half mile of the hike takes us to a fork in the trail. Head left to the North Petrified Forest or right to the south. Distance wise, it looked to be about three quarters of a mile to either one. Rather than flipping a coin, we picked the north area because there was an earthcache placed there. It didn’t take long before we were in the heart of the petrified forest. There are probably hundreds of larger specimens there. They did seem to be more brittle than other petrified trees we have seen based on the large number of shards scattered around every one of them. 

Desolate Start to Hike

 

 

 It was neat to wander around them and check them out. There were other interesting rock formations in the area as well. Based on the number of bison chips scattered about, the herd we saw yesterday about two miles away might sometimes explore this area as well. Many of the petrified stumps are resting precariously on mounds of dirt that are slowly disintegrating. I suppose every now and then the pillar of dirt can no longer support the stone stump and it falls to the ground and breaks apart even more. Some of the stumps are over six feet tall and wide. After exploring for probably an hour or so, we turned around and headed back at the trail split we momentarily thought about checking out the South Petrified Forest area, but decided we have had enough. I suspect the round trip walk was between 3 and 4 miles. We got back to the car and had lunch before driving back.

Strange Capped Rocks

Wide View of Petrified Forest

Prickly Pear and Fleabane Daisies Sharing Dirt

Chris Poses for Scale

Won't Stay Upright Much Longer

More Capped Stones

Panoramic View on Way Back to Parking

Since the on-ramp to I-94 only heads eastbound, we decided to go into Medora to check out the town. The town is known for its outdoor theater during the summer months and we had checked into getting tickets for a play earlier in our stay. We quickly discovered that tickets were not cheap and given that sitting outside to watch a musical wasn’t really something we would enjoy even if it was only a few bucks, we had opted to just skip that part of the entertainment. I have heard of others who make it a big part of their stay in the area so if that’s what you like, I’d say go for it. Medora is a cute little town with lots of shops, a gas station and multiple restaurants and ice cream shops. After exploring the town on what was a hot afternoon, we concluded our day with an ice cream cone and talked with one of the locals about our full time travels.

Smokestack at Old Slaughterhouse in Medora

Pretty Sunset at Buffalo Gap

We had a nice stop at TRNP. Buffalo Gap Campground was a pleasant place, reasonably close to the park and very inexpensive. Our next destination is the east side of Glacier National Park. It’s about a 410 mile drive from where we are and there really wasn’t much we wanted to see or do along the way. Not to badmouth eastern Montana, but there isn’t a lot going on there. We had decided to have two driving days to get from Medora ND to Babb, MT. Our first stop would be the Elks Lodge in Lewistown. It was just about 300 miles which is well over our normal limit, but we were taking back roads (mainly state route 200) and other than a 30 mile stretch that was quite bumpy, the drive was reasonable. We pulled into the Elks Lodge about a half hour before a severe thunderstorm was to come thru. This lodge has a golf course associated with it and there was also some evening dinner that had drawn a crowd. Normally we check in with the bartender at an Elks Lodge but at this one we were greeted by the dining room hostess. We told her we were traveling Elks and were looking to stay for the night. She went to talk with somebody and came back a minute later and told us to park by the other trailer at the far side of the lot. She didn’t want to get any info or see my newly renewed Elks card. We hurried up and setup just before the winds picked up and the rain started. After it passed by, we walked around a bit but were tired from the drive and called it a night.

Ominous Clouds over Lewistown Elks Lodge

The next day we drove into Great Falls Montana. We planned to stay at a Walmart because we really needed to replenish the fridge and pantry with some food. This was especially needed because we were headed to a very remote area and it wasn’t clear what the grocery situation would be. The Walmart was just across the street from some large refinery. Definitely not our most scenic location in our 3+ years but it would work. The drive here was just over 110 miles so we made it in early enough that Chris could do her shopping while I ran out to get a haircut. It wasn’t the most peaceful spot to sleep but it worked and put us in easy striking distance of our real goal: Glacier National Park.