North Dakota - Teddy Roosevelt National Park (Days 1 and 2)

We arrived in North Dakota near dinner time. There was a sign, but otherwise not a lot of fanfare or really anything other than what we had been seeing in South Dakota. This part of North Dakota is NOT flat and the hills are bigger than Virginia hills. Our goal was Medora and Teddy Roosevelt National Park. Apparently one of the big things in North Dakota to do is to go to Medora and go to the musical so that's where we were headed.

Medora is a small town- maybe even Louisa sized with very little around it. Aaron kept telling me we needed to go get tickets for dinner and the show and I was curious about that because couldn't we just show up for dinner? Luckily to clear up the confusion, tickets and dinner were in the same place. Why might we need tickets for dinner as well? It was a pitchfork fondue. They take garden pitchforks, load the tines up with steaks and then dip them into great big vats of boiling something. There were maybe six of these vats and each one had at least four pitchforks in it. Then when the steaks were done, the pitchfork was pulled out and walked over to the buffet line and steaks were divied up among the guests. Besides steak there was veggies, baked potatoes, cole slaw, baked beans, texas toast, and brownies. All of this was consumed outside on a patio full of picnic tables on top of the mesa listening to a country band croon away. Pretty neat.

The musical was there too - in an amphitheater built into the hillside so the stage was at the bottom of the hill - but we had about an hour so we went to see about a campsite in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The entrance was right in town, but that was a little misleading because there was a long curvy road to actually be in the park proper. After winding up and down some hills we arrived at the campground to find that every site except one handicapped one was full. Back at the entrance I asked the ranger if we could have that one and he said no. Why not I wonder? I understand that I am not handicapped, but if that's the last site, that's the last site and its not discriminatory for a campground to be full! He rattled off a series of other campgrounds that I could not comprehend and we headed back towards town. Turns out there is a campground right in front of the entrance to the musical (and owned by the same people). This campground was not as isolated and cost ten dollars more. We were not going to be picky about it because we were just amazed that of all places, North Dakota is the first campground we were unable to show up and just get a camp site.

The Medora Musical is EVERY night in the summer in this little town in North Dakota that's not near much of anything. And on top of that, it's pretty full capacity-wise. It's pretty much been this way since the 50's. Now they change the show every year, but I think they use to run some shows for a few years before. The show is a hodge podge kind of story with some just singing some popular country songs, random things about how great Teddy Roosevelt is, and how awesome North Dakota is. It was well done, wasn't the best I've ever seen, but it was entertaining.

The next day we explored Medora. We went to a free little museum about the life of the guy who marketed Mr. Bubble bubble bath (Harold Shafer of Gold Seal). That was like his fifth or sixth successful marketed product. Turns out he never really made anything, just took commercial products and figured out how to market them to the suzy homemakers and was really really good at it. He was also born and raised in North Dakota, loved it, kept his company within the state even when it was making a bazillion dollars, and helped fund the Medora musical stuff. The museum was very interesting and informative and well worth a stop.

Next was Teddy Roosevelt National Park, the South Unit. It's basically a 26 mile loop road with some spur hikes into the badlands off of it. We did a few of the hikes and enjoyed the scenery. Off in the distance we saw some wild horses and some bison. These badlands were really similar to the ones in South Dakota except these all had grass growing on the tops of them. Not so desolate and otherworldly I suppose. There is a coal vein running through a certain layer and sometimes those veins catch fire and melt the rock above. None were currently burning, but we visited one that had burned for over twenty-five years and was something of a tourist destination.

Then we got stuck in a bison traffic jam. It was way cooler than the ones we experienced in Teton because these bison were moving from one area to another and because of the steep terrain the easiest place for them to walk was on the road. There were bison on all sides of the car on the road and in the hills and they were moving. What really held traffic up was the calf that decided it wanted milk right now... while mom was standing on the road in front of the car in front of us. I think bison are amazing and this was awesome. Several did walk right by Aaron's window, but they were moving and none stopped to breathe on him (too bad). We did one last hike to a point above the Missouri River and were heading out of the park when we got trapped in another bison jam. Two different herds in one day!

The South Unit and the North Unit are both former ranches of Theodore Roosevelt, but they are about fifty miles apart. While heading north on the highway, we went through yet another construction scene where the road was completely torn out and Aaron was driving on wavy uneven potholed dirt, the only car within a group of semi- trucks (I was working on my herpetology final in the car). Apparently Aaron had seen the signs for a detour, just decided not to take them and we were kind of lucky to be behind the trucks because then we never had to stop and wait like some of the traffic coming the other way. As soon as construction ended we were at the North Unit.

The North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park is smaller and more remote and only has a one way out and back road, but they have the same amount of bison apparently and we saw three just chilling behind the visitor center right inside the gate. The badland formations are very similar to the ones at the south unit, but there is a lot more grass and grassland. The national parks are actually surrounded by National Grassland - a bunch of big rolling hills covered in grass. Less than half a mile from the visitor center we got stuck in yet another bison traffic jam. And what's more amazing is that I am still not tired of it.

We stopped at a few overlooks on the way to the campground, but again this is mostly a park that you can see from the car with not a lot of developed trails and honestly most of the trails you would be looking at the same stuff you can see from the car. This campground was mostly empty with maybe 2 other tents and a few rvs. We picked a campsite on the outer loop in the tent only section away from everything else, set up, and then got back on the scenic drive. We were headed to the end for a hike overlooking the river. On the way we got stuck in another bison jam and some others on a hillside a little while later.

The hike was only a few miles and was interesting compared to some of our other hikes because it was all through tall grassland. We both had shorts on and thought that the feeling of the grass hitting our legs was annoying. The other interesting thing was the wild cone flowers scattered throughout the field - guess that's where they found them before they sold them in garden shops. The hike went to a point overlooking the Missouri River and the badlands on either side of the flood plain.

We headed back to an overlook with a stone building built by the CCC and made a camp dinner and sat and watched the river flow through the badland valley. Aaron and I have really enjoyed the camp dinners because they do taste good and because we have eaten dinner in some really lovely locations. We didn't have anything else to do for the evening and we had been talking about it for days so we headed north to the nearest town to try and find some forties.

We were not familiar with North Dakota liquor laws and found them out the annoying way. The gas station had no beer whatsoever. We found a grocery store (an enigma in itself because most of the places we had driven around in didn't have one - where do people buy food?) that didn't have any anywhere so I decided to ask the fifteen year old clerks. Turns out - one of them only looked fifteen (she was twenty-six - does this make ME old?) and knew the answer. You can buy beer to go at the bars (really? that's ridiculous!) or at the state liquor store which sells all alcohol. We drove back through town trying to find the recommended bar, but did succeed in finding the liquor store. It was 9:05, but Aaron swore he saw the open sign so we checked it out. Two men were having a discussion while stocking some liquor and the lady was standing behind the counter watching us looking at the beer case (finally!). Aaron put our forties on the counter and as we were making small talk the lady said she was closing in one minute. Meanwhile, the clock over her head said 9:07. Whatever... we got our forties and headed back to the campground.

Aaron and I played scrabble apple on the picnic table and drank our forties. It worked out really well actually because the scrabble pieces sort of glowed in the dark. We played the real scrabble apple way first where you flip pieces over one by one and make words. I killed Aaron even after pausing after each letter flip to give him a chance. Then we played a more normal scrabble way just without the board and I beat him that way too. I am pretty sure that Aaron will kill me at normal scrabble when there is strategy involving double word score and such.

Then the bison infiltrated the campground (see the post from July 23) much to our amusement and dismay. What were we supposed to do? What do you do if a bison wants to snuggle up next to the tent? No one really knows. They moved on behind someone else's campsite, but I could still hear them snorting and rumbling as I fell asleep.

TO BE CONTINUED