Roosevelt National Park ND: Landscapes and Wild Inhabitants

Parts of Roosevelt National Park at Medora ND are badlands. Closer to the Little Missouri River, the park supports a herd of bison and many wild horses. There are several prairie dog towns along the beautiful 36 mile loop road. Highly recommended if you are driving cross country. In far western North Dakota, I 94 goes within a mile of the park.

TR had a ranch here and liked to kill bison for sport. Parts of his story are touching, but not this part.

Roosevelt National Park ND: Prairie Dog Town

Enchanted Highway South From Gladstone ND

Gary Greff from Regent ND gets the prize for outdoor sculpture with scrap metal! This link, this one, and many more will tell you about this genius sculptor.

Salem Sue

Brick Bas Relief Sculpture at a North Dakota Rest Area

Rest areas are often a source of great local and regional pride along the Interstates. This stop in North Dakota features an ingenious brick bas-relief.

Google "brick sculpture" for some extra treats.

West of the Mississippi: North Dakota

Did I mention the weather? It is lovely every day except for rain early in morning north of Lake Huron. With the shorter days of fall, it's a great help to the traveler to have bright evenings. I feel grateful.

Today I cross North Dakota. The changes this day are the most dramatic...from the flat midwest at elevation 845' at Grand Forks, up the imperceptible slope all day to the bumpy and carved front of the Rockies to 2267' at Medora. Tomorrow will be more dramatic yet.

This grain elevator town is Lakota. Near here I meet a woman working 

at a very basic gas station. 

She and her boyfriend live in a town up the road and own a little land outside town, where they plan to move. They are raising young beef stock right now and will increase the herd as they can. 

Never lived anywhere else and don't plan to. 

You could make a good life here.

 Devils Lake swallows barns, houses and farmland. 

The lake rose dramatically a decade ago
due to increased rains. There is no natural outlet.
Folks are working on a fix.
It is an environmental and economic disaster except for the fishing industry.
AmTrak stops here.

 The Little Missouri. 

I am in Lewis and Clark country now.

North Dakota badlands

Theodore Roosevelt National Park Visitor Center is closed by the shut-down. 

This is Tuesday, the first day. Maybe they will figure it out quickly?! Hope springs eternal.

 Theodore Roosevelt National Park at Medora
Except for the Visitor Center, the park is more or less open and I take an hour's drive into it before settling for the night. Wildife in the badlands of North Dakota is diverse;
this park is a treasure.