We’ve driven on highways through North Dakota in the past and caught a glimpse of the Badlands. There’s a very obvious change in the landscape around Theodore Roosevelt National Park. As the ruggedness of the badlands and variety of colors in the rock comes into view. Choosing experiences over things we personally forego anniversary gifts to each other. Instead we prefer to plan for at least a nite away. This getaway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park was for our 12th anniversary.
With limited time off, we were looking for somewhere to go within a couple hours to home. Preferably a new place to explore and where we could spend time in nature. Across the border in North Dakota we chose to stay in Watford City and were close to the North Unit area of the park. The weather was overcast but fairly warm. But no complaints as it was the long weekend in November!
We lucked out seeing bison right by the road as soon as we entered the park. They are fascinating to watch! Then a little further along near the Cannonball Concretions we heard a rumble, saw dust billowing not far away and much to our surprise a large herd of bison were stampeding towards the parking lot we pulled into. It was an amazing sight!! We drove every road you could in this area of the park, enjoyed the lookout points and found a few really nice hikes. On the way out we sat for a while watching a couple Longhorn steers grazing in the open grasslands.
With the border closed we don’t know when we’ll be able to visit again. Besides our annual US National Parks pass sadly expired and we only got to use it for 3 months before leisure travel halted. It would be nice to go back in the summer when there’s a greener landscape and stay right in the Roosevelt Park at the campground. We had a great little getaway and enjoyed the interesting change of scenery not far from home!
Medium format film processed and scanned by Canadian Film Lab.
We stayed at The Watford which worked well and it was a nice hotel.
