I know I'm behind in blogging again so here we go... North Dakota was my 29th state in my 50 state challenge!
My friend and I decided to take a trip to the Dakotas and started out by flying into Dickinson, North Dakota. (Very tiny airport!) We stayed at the AmericInn by Wyndham Dickinson on our first night which was about a 15 min drive from airport.
We spent two days in North Dakota. Day 1 was Theodore Roosevelt National Park (north unit) which was about an hour drive from our hotel. This park is basically a scenic drive with overlooks and hikes along the way. When we first entered the park, BAM! There was our first bison standing there to greet us! We were very giddy! We enjoyed our time and ended up staying at Roosevelt Inn and Suites which was about 20 min from north park entrance. All in all we probably spent 3 hours-ish inside the park.
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| Entrance to the park |
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| Bison |
One of the coolest and most unique things about the north unit was the cannonball concretions. I'm no science expert so I'm stealing from their website: "Jutting out from the landscape, these large, round stones don’t appear to properly fit into the badlands. The secret lies in the large butte located nearby.
When mineral rich water seeps down through the porous layers that make up the badlands, it can deposit those minerals in spaces or gaps in the sediments. The minerals act as a kind of glue, holding these sediments together, often forming around a core. As more and more layers are deposited, the concretion builds outward like a pearl, before being exposed by erosion."
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| Cannonball! |
Day 2 was the south unit of the park. It’s about an hour and 20 minute from our hotel that was near the north unit. Both park units were nice drives where you could see a lot, stop for scenic overlooks, and even do some hiking if you prefer.
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| Beautiful views |
We got to see lots of bison and prairie dogs which was really cool! We loved looking for all the different animals along the drive. We also saw Theodore Roosevelt's cabin. Did you know that Teddy spent his formative years in the badlands?
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| Teddy's Cabin |
The park (both the north and the south unit) were great. North was less crowded, but I think we both preferred the south unit.
Side note: Medora is a cute little town close to the south unit. We were told we had to see the Medora Musical while we were in there, but unfortunately the show had not opened yet.
We ended up driving to Bowman so we could stay there for the night and have less driving in the morning. Bowman Inn and Suites was the name of our hotel. There was literally nothing in this town so I don’t know if I would recommend staying here. HOWEVER the hotel has the cutest little dog named Charlie and we became fast friends. Go to Bowman to see Charlie!
South Dakota will be my next blog so stay tuned!
See you next time, TRNP!
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