Once we left South Dakota, we made our way north to…wait for it…North Dakota.
We didn’t actually spend the night in North Dakota, but we still managed to do a lot of stuff there. First of all, North Dakota is a whole lotta land. Empty, beautiful, rolling, rocky, land. This is where the road atlas comes in handy too, because we often did not have cell phone service. There is actually only one KOA Kampground in the whole state. That’s crazy. There are over 485 locations, but only one in North Dakota if that tells you anything. Whew.
So we spent the day driving through the state and seeing great things, but our next campground stop was in Montana.
What we did
We spent a few hours driving the loop through Theodore Roosevelt National Park. That park is phenomenal. I can totally see why it’s a national park. Good work, country. This stop introduced us to our first bison sighting; we also saw hundreds of prairie dogs and lots wild horses. Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Badlands National Park are both parks you’ll need a car to explore. They have a main road (with a few off-shoots) that takes you through the whole park. It takes a few hours just to drive, not counting all your stops at lookout points, places to hike, and ranger stations. For some reason–maybe because I live in the Midwest–I assumed the parks were more like Mammoth Cave National Park, where you park and can spend the day exploring while your car is in the parking lot. That’s not going to happen in these parks, so be prepared to drive around, stop for a while, and then drive some more. Everything is just so big, I don’t know the words to describe the big-ness.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located in Medora, North Dakota so after the park, we explored the town for a while before hitting the road again. We ate at Little Missouri Dining Room and Saloon where our waitress was a performer in Medora Musical (“The Greatest Show in the West” if you didn’t know), and she invited us to come to the show that night. We would have loved to go, but we were hours away from our next stop and staying in Medora until after 10:00 just wasn’t going to happen. But I’m still bummed we didn’t get to go–I think the girls would have loved it.
Next stop: Montana
So enjoying your trip, Mary!! Love Montana as well…can’t wait for the next post!!
🙂 Thanks, Pam!
This should be a TV series.
Hi George! I wish we could have filmed some things while we were gone–that would have made such a great way to preserve the trip. And also help entertain others. ha!