Theodore Roosevelt National Park

"I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota" ~ Theodore Roosevelt

These photos were taken August 2, 2011 during my first trip to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Western North Dakota is desolate country. On this early August day the park was also desolate as I was one of three vehicles in the entire park for the entire day. Being virtually alone on the hiking trails and being the only person gazing over the Little Missouri River Valley I could easily understand how President Roosevelt fell in love with this area.

"The Bad Lands grade all the way from those that are almost rolling in character to those that are fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to seem hardly properly to belong to this earth" ~ Theodore Roosevelt

The park is located in Western North Dakota comprising of 3 units. The North Unit, South Unit, and Elk Horn Ranch Unit combined to cover 110 square miles of North Dakota badlands.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park was dedicated in 1978. Before then the area was a National Wildlife Refuge and then a national Memorial Park.

"I do not believe any man can adequately appreciate the world of to-day unless he has some knowledge of...and some feeling for...the history of the world of the past" ~ Theodore Roosevelt

The Little Missouri River began carving the badlands about 600,000 years ago during the Pleistocerne Epoch. The river formerly ran to Hudson Bay, but glaciers diverted it into the Missouri River.

.........

Theodore Roosevelt National Park has a semi-arid Northern Great Planes climate.

As far as the eye can see...yellow clover.

Animals that you might see in Theodore Roosevelt National Park include elk, prairie dogs, white-tail and mule deer, sharp tailed grouse, golden eagles, feral horses, pronghorns, and...bison.

"It is certainly a most healthy life. How a man does sleep, and how he enjoys the coarse fare!" ~ Theodore Roosevelt