A stop at the Teddy Roosevelt NP in North Dakota was not in our plans, but how can you resist,..? when you drive I-94 which passes through the southern end of park.  Let’s stop and see the park entrance.  Okay, maybe a short park drive, oops, pulling the trailer, sure, lets go.  There is a scenic stop with view from above looking into the park, which is rewarding.  The sky is mostly clouds with few openings, but the scene is upon a vast canyon of the “painted valley”, a nice surprise! 

  Linda suggests continuing to the park road, and we have plenty of daylight left.  Entrance is free with a National Parks pass and ID.  The gate ranger advises us to turn around in 10 miles at the Windy Canyon stop, due to pulling the trailer.  The park road is windy and hilly, the steepest grade challenges the F150 into one of the lowest gears, 2 of 10.  The scenery is beautiful for this short visit. Sometimes you are lucky, and today is a lucky day. We were unaware this national park was known for buffalo herds and wild horses along with the painted canyon.  Also unexpected was the early foliage of the cotton wood trees.  Our cameras were clicking and smoking a wee bit, what fun :-).  Another car was stopped and looking, and we viewed a group of wild horses high on the ridge

There are 3 major Prairie Dog towns on our short 10 mile park drive. Hundreds of little critters live in burrows clearly identified by dirt mounds.  Linda loves these little guys which poke their heads out and squeal to communicate.

  The stars of the drive were the Bison.  Twice a small herd was grazing by the road and walking in front of the cars which behaved respectfully of the beasts, thankfully.  Our Cameras were working hard.  One young Bison stopped by to gaze at Linda, a bit face to face, a bit spooky. 

   On a longer visit, I would get out on the trails and explore the park on foot.

• 2021 Fall