Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park Travel Page by Ewingjr98

When I made plans to drive through North Dakota on my amazing adventure from California to Washington, DC, I was interested in things to do. I asked one native, and the best he could come up with was the World's Largest Ball of Twine. I like twine as much as the next guy, but a ball of it? Not my idea of fun. Finally I zoomed in on a green patch out in the west side of the state that was labeled Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It was right on I-94 and it sounded interesting, a fine place to stop for an hour. Well, this turned out to be the highlight of our quick two days in North Dakota.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park has three separate locations spread across western North Dakota. I visited the park's South Unit which lies alongside Interstate 94 near Medora, North Dakota. The the Little Missouri River flows through all three units of the park, and the the Maah Daah Hey Trail connects all three units.

From 1884-1886 after Roosevelt's mother and wife died on the same day, he decided to travel west to rebuild life. He settled on a ranch in the area, raising cattle and hunting for most of two years. This land was nationalized in 1935 and became a national park in 1978.

We visited the South Unit of Roosevelt National Park for just a few hours in October 2008. We first stopped at the visitors center, took a look at Roosevelt's old cabin, and spent a few minutes in the museum. Next we drove the 12 miles of the scenic road that are open in the winter. During this drive we saw maybe 20 mule deer, three wild horses, hundreds of prairie dogs, one sharp tail quail, and dozens of bison.