Sat 6/29 recap – back on real-time updates! (The Stamps asked us a few weeks ago if it took a long time to blog and we said No, it is something that we enjoy doing. We still do. But playing catch up with more than one to do has been just too much! So one per day for each of us has been a good way to catch up. Since we now intend to always have Wi-Fi available, we shouldn’t get backlogged like that in the future!)
Today was a great day. We were so excited to get to see the rest of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and had less driving to do than yesterday. It’s nicely cool (60’s) and cloudy, so perfect hiking weather, too.
Today’s adventure was to the South Unit. Our first stop was right along the highway at the Painted Canyon Visitor’s Center. It’s FREE to everyone, no entrance gate at all. We explored the visitor center and the great view that they get to work from every day.
There are also a couple of hikes right from there. We set off for what we anticipated to be a 4 mile hike into, and therefore also out of, the canyon. Anticipated is the key word. With the recent one-inch rainstorm that we experienced the other day, we have experienced some mud. I don’t find sliding into a canyon and then clawing my way up to be fun hiking. We passed a couple who said that they couldn’t get very far before turning back, and we did the same. But the views we saw were spectacular and got about 2 miles total on this adventure
Then we headed over to the main part of the South Unit which has the more typical gated setup. Wow, it was fascinating. One of the things that was really nice is that you could see the views from both high in the canyon and right down in it as you drove throughout the park. There is just so much variation in the land and the CCC did a great job with the scenic park road to offer variety. They had also constructed several of the structures that we saw the past couple of days.
There were several little hikes that we enjoyed throughout the day. As we found in other smaller parks (such as Pinnacles), the size of the parking areas are just rather small. Most only had room for a handful of vehicles. Being Saturday afternoon in June and a cooler day, they were kind of crowded by their standards. Of course no major traffic, but still the same tourons who get out of their car in the middle of the road to get to close for pictures of wildlife. Yes, we saw more bison. People are fascinated by them. By now, we have literally seen hundreds of them over the past couple of weeks so we are just like “move on, people… it is just another bison”. In fact, we didn’t even take any pictures of them. Just our new wildlife finds.
First, wild horses. They did create a bit of a traffic jam just hanging out in the middle of the road for a bit
But our absolute favorite was the prairie dog. They are adorable! They burrow and live in these little mounds, all nearby one another in prairie dog towns. The first “town” we saw was actually called a metropolis because it was so big! They all make these barking/chirping noises that are so cute. Don’t tell Daisy, but we were really in love with these little dogs. Not only did we see them in the metropolis, but one of our hikes took us right up through a town. They were all around us, checking us out while we checked them out. What a great new experience for us!
The hiking was similarly spectacular to yesterday. Diverse, just enough challenge and plenty of room for adventuring “off trail” since that is allowed/encouraged here. Wind Canyon had this amazing sandstone area nearby that we had so much fun exploring
And the traditional Wind Canyon Hike gave us some great views of the Little Missouri River below
Our next hike, also intended to be 4 miles, was thwarted again by mud. We loved the early part of this trail, traversing through a prairie dog town and varying views. But as we had read on all-trails reviews, there were some serious mud spots less than a mile in. It was just impossible to get across the muddy creek bed to continue 🙁 But we enjoyed what we could do along the way
Well after traversing through the park and a couple of thwarted hiking attempts due to mud, it was time to think about important things… namely, lunch! While we had planned to have lunch near Livvy, the park lacked many picnic areas and we had driven through the very cute town of Medora on the way in. So I was all about a lunch date! We found the oldest bar in Medora, serving since 1883! It was our kind of spot, complete with characters, old decor and dollar bills/cowboy hats everywhere from previous patrons. And the food was outstanding!
Today is pretty sentimental since it is our last national park day on this trip. We have loved them all and continue to appreciate the beauty that is available to us. We are so grateful for fun hiking, beautiful views, spectacular wildlife (yes, even the bison) and the diversity of each national park. We will be excited to scratch off 3 more locations on our scratch off poster when we get home. They were all fantastic!
Oh, and we talked to this wonderful ranger today. She was so helpful and interesting. She recently retired from her financial job in Virginia and decided to become a park ranger. So she is living in North Dakota for the season, lives in park housing and is loving every minute of it. Maybe a future career choice for us when we get tired of being on the road? Rick says no… but I say maybe. Only time will tell, but it’s fun to think about what may lie ahead where we can enjoy these parks.
One thing for sure, we look forward to more national park trips and are already scoping out our plans for 2025 to fully enjoy more of them!
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