As we finished up our family fourth of July vacation in Grand Junction, we decided that we would take a detour to visit my last state in the contiguous United States – North Dakota.
I have been working my way through the remaining states that I have yet to visit in the United States in the last decade. My family made regular trips down to see family in Florida when I was growing up but otherwise I was not well traveled until college when I joined the debate team. Driving across the country twice during winter break was always an experience and really helped to kickstart my state count. I didn’t travel much in my 20s and early 30s but when Jayne and I decided to set a goal of visiting all of the national parks it allowed me to work my way above 40 without much effort.
And then there was North Dakota which was the remaining state outside of Alaska and Hawaii on my list of 50. No one in our family had been there so when I proposed to check it off the list Jayne took some convincing but eventually agreed.
Jayne had apparently calculated better the amount of time that driving through North Dakota would add to our family trip then I did. Because it is really far north!! The way I looked at it, it is 12 hours from Grand Junction to Medora, North Dakota, so we will be there in a day. But we were travelling with two small children. And even though they are great travelers the reality was that it was not just 12 hours away for us.
We got a late start out of the Airbnb because it always takes us a while to pack the car and make sure the place is to Jayne’s standards. And then we went to say goodbye to family one more time. So by the time we were leaving it was noon on the opposite side of town and my grand plan of getting on the road to Medora early enough to get there (or nearby) that evening was long gone. I’m not sure why I thought we could leave at 8 AM with two small children anyway, but I have since learned my lesson.
Another important thing that I learned on this trip is that there is no road between Grand Junction and Medora. With the Rocky Mountains and the Black Hills between them, you are either committed to going the back roads or driving extra long on the highway system through Denver. So we being adventurous explorers who have already been through Denver multiple times in our lives took the backroads after getting a late start.
It was a very scenic and pretty drive. But we now have a recording on Jayne’s phone of the kids screaming in the car on this drive that is to be played whenever anyone suggests doing a drive of a similar length on another road trip. Because when one kid was hungry and tired of travelling and decided to cry, the other one decided that the appropriate response to help make her feel better and stop was to scream. Loudly. For a long time.
We made great time once the kids fell asleep very late in the day, and ended up staying the night in Spearfish outside of Rapid City, still a healthy three and a half hour drive from the park.
Our dash north took us past a lot of large farms, including one stretch of a mile where we saw a large concentration of birds of prey that we still can not identify. And by the time that we had seen enough of them that we were thoroughly confused and got the camera ready to take a photo we had changed farms and there were no more on the rest of our trip.
When we finally hit I-94 we were counting down the miles to the Painted Canyon Visitor Center, where we stretched our legs, hit the bathroom, made sandwiches for a late lunch, and took in the scenery. We have been to some pretty places in the country but this area really wow’d me.
I could have stayed there for hours enjoying the view but we were on a clock to get into the park proper and do as much as we could of the loop road. So we piled back into the car and took I-94 west to Medora, the gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Medora is a western themed tourist town with a population estimate of around 121 according to the last census. It reminds me of a couple tourist areas around Mount Rushmore or Gardiner, Montana, except in this case it is packed between two exits on the highway surrounding the entrance to the national park. It looked like a fun place to spend a week while taking in the entirety of the park. Since we were only in the area for a few hours, we weren’t able to take in one of the western shows that it is famous for, and instead we headed into the park.
We kept our eyes up for wildlife as we drove through the scenic vistas, and it wasn’t long until we were pointing out prairie dogs to the kids. Our next spot was a ranger talking to a group on a roadside pull off parking, so we stopped to see what the group was checking out: a pack of wild horses mixed with the buffalo herd in the distance. Continuing our travels clockwise on the loop road we learned that it was going to be an out and back on the road today because the loop was closed at a certain point. We wanted to see how far we could get, but we eventually decided to turn back early.
Why? Because we got stuck in a bison jam and weren’t sure how long it was going to take us to get back to the park entrance. If you have been to Yellowstone then you know what we are talking about here. Buffalo walking on the road because it is the easiest path for them through the hills to get where they are going. As a result, traffic on both sides was at a standstill. And we were having a great time since the buffalo were so close that we probably could have touched them as we were stuck in our cars on the roads and they were passing by.
We made it at least half way down the loop when we decided to turn back, but the bison jam had cleared by that time so it was easier getting back, leaving us plenty of time to get back to the bathroom at the visitor center, stretch our legs, and pick out some souvenirs before hitting the road east for home.
There are three other sites in the system with a focus on the 26th US President: Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site in Manhattan, Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo and Sagamore Hill National Historic Site on Long Island. The birthplace site is a recreated brownstone commemorating the site of his birth in the Flatiron District in 1858 and his home until he reached the age of 14. Sagamore Hill was the home of the president from 1885 until his death, and became known as the “Summer White House”. The Inaugural site was the location of the first non-scheduled, extraordinary inauguration in the 20th Century, and the fifth ever. Roosevelt, then Vice President, became the youngest person to become President when he was sworn in at the home of his friend Ansley Wilcox in Buffalo after cutting short a vacation in the Adirondacks upon learning that President McKinley was on his deathbed in September 1901.
