Wow! Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit was a great surprise!
We arrived and found a nearly empty campground. One section has pull-through sites and the other section has back-in sites. We found a site that was made just for us and our solar panels!
After parking the rv, we set off on the loop drive. Part of the drive would be closed on Monday for road repair and we wanted to see as much as we could so we could plan our visit. As we drove, we stopped at the pullouts to read the signs and enjoy the views.
Riverbend Overlook still has a building built by the CCC when they worked the area in the late 1930s.
This is also the last picture taken of Bob and I with our Panasonic Lumix camera.
As we drove through the park, we saw many buffalo. Some were walking along the road.
At the end of the park drive was Oxbow Overlook.
The trailhead for Sperati Point started near the overlook. Since the road would be closed on Monday, we decided to hike to Sperati Point--2.4 miles round trip.
It was a nice hike without much change in elevation, but great views overlooking Little Missouri River.
Once we got to Sperati Point, it was picture time, but alas the wind started blowing and the tripod blew down. This time we were not so lucky--the Panasonic that we really liked literally bit the dust! And to make matters worse, the tripod also broke a leg in the fall.
We picked up all the pieces and made the hike back to the car. It was still a nice hike.
Saturday night we attended the ranger talk about Theodore Roosevelt--Bob and I were the only ones in attendance besides the ranger even though the campground almost filled! We learned a lot about Roosevelt and about becoming a full-time ranger.
Sunday we decided to hike the nature trail near the campground in the morning. Little Mo Nature Trail is wheel chair accessible for most of the way. Near one of the posts marking an interpretive area, I spotted one of my least favorite creatures--a rattlesnake--sunning himself half on and half off the trail! Bob of course went back for a picture--I had already sprinted far ahead.
Not far after the snake, we veered off the paved trail and into the badlands (still the trail).
We became familiar with the grey clay substance bentonite. All the trails are covered in it! It is a chemically changed volcanic ash which is very slippery when wet. One of the amazing things about bentonite is the many uses it has in our everyday life--auto polish, face creams, crayons, laxatives and spark plugs!
These steps lead up to an area ....
.....with a great view of Little Mo.
After returning to the rv for lunch, we decided to hike Caprock Coulee Loop Trail. This would be the first day in a long time that we hiked over 5 miles! Of course, we gathered information for a geocache along the way.
This trail wound its way through the badlands. We had terrific views in all directions.
The first part of the trail wound through trees on the cool, northern slopes of hills. The last part took us on the southern slopes which had less vegetation and were much warmer.
We returned to the rv for an enjoyable evening and even spent some time outside looking at the stars--almost no light pollution in the park!
Monday we drove back to Caprock Coulee Trailhead to hike a different trail--Prairie Dog Town. This trail set off going east of the Caprock Coulee Trail. It was a nice hike to two prairie dog towns. As we neared the first town, the prairie dogs began their high pitched yipping to warn others of intruders. They kept it up until we passed through the town. These were the plumpest prairie dogs we had ever seen!
At the end of the second town, we came to the end of the trail.
Time to turn around and head back to the rv for lunch.
Later that afternoon we walked from the campground to Cannonball Concretions which was across from the campground entrance. We walked into a canyon for some photos--without the use of our tripod. Bob found a nice flat rock to hold our other camera.
Then we walked a short portion of the Buckhorn Trail--only until we came to a steep hill of bentonite--and then we went back to the campground. Yes, this was day 2 of walking over 5 miles! It was about time we got some exercise!
We left the north unit Tuesday morning headed for the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
There are several things that surprised me about North Dakota--the number of oil wells and the wacky division of Mountain/Central time zones!
From there is was on to Badlands National Park.
Not far from the entrance we saw big horn sheep.
The landscape in the park reminded us of Theodore Roosevelt NP, but the layers are different.
Our first night we had a beautiful sunset.
Saturday morning we walked Fossil Trail for an earth cache.
Then we hiked Saddle Pass Trail to get to Castle and Medicine Root Trails.
We had to go over the hills to get to the trail in the grassland.
There was a great view from the top of Saddle Pass Trail.
This sign marked the halfway point of our loop.
Of course there was a sign announcing the possible presence of my least favorite critter.
The camp sites at Badlands were mostly small pullouts, but they were great for solar!
We enjoyed our stay at Badlands National Park, but it seemed like time was running out on this trip! We want to be home to vote and we still have people to see and things to do!
