This place may be the biggest surprise of the entire trip, time will tell but that it began here was perfect. Theodore Roosevelt National Park lies in the vast prairie lands of North Dakota. It is a place I think many or most people pass through with the briefest of stops on their way to the grand landscapes and mountain views of the west. TRNP is a place I’ve been through 1 time before, a brief drive by experience like what I've just mentioned. The abiding impression left then was the prairie dogs, and their elaborate prairie dog towns (PDT's). They are a humorous lot, and do not roam far from the elaborate colonies they create. They are considered a keystone species of this ecosystem, providing food for many predators and burrowing habitat for others, as well as aerating and fertilizing the soil that allow a diversity of plants. They once covered the central plains from southern Canada to northern Mexico, with numbers estimated in the hundreds of millions, along with the bison. But I digress.
We had intentions of staying one night, a quick pit stop on our way to the Rocky Mountains and of Montana. We pulled in to the south unit in the Cottonwood campground and settled in to a rainy afternoon. We wanted to walk, because badlands are here and Esme loves to walk in them (discovered from a trip to Badlands National Park in SD two years ago). If you’ve never experienced this geologic phenomenon, badlands are essentially eroding clay soils and soft sedimentary rocks that create a variety of unique formations including canyons, ravines, mesas, buttes, and my new favorite- hoodoos- which are formations with a wider and harder cap of rock on top, and then eroding, more narrow softer soil columnar formations underneath. They can be small or quite large. The drive to our hike was filled with unexpected wildlife sightings including several bison, numerous prairie dog towns, and a band of wild horses. Our attention was held. Before setting off on our walk we paused for a quick lunch where the bison pictured above were also grazing. We had to move to make room, and I was glad again to be in a landscape where I was not the one in charge. This is my favorite part about being in wilderness, being a part of a place where I am not dominant and must approach the surrounding terrain and creatures with respect, humility, and a heightened alertness. On our short hike we roamed along a short nature trail and marveled at the crackling clay walls and sweeping views. Badlands are great places to get tactile with. We decided to head
back to camp. The drive back was filled with even more wildlife then before, including an awesome glimpse of a badger that Esme spotted while we zoomed towards another PDT. My first encounter with a badger ever, kudos to Esme and her keen eye for catching this one. After being here a total
three hours, we knew we wanted to stay. Tomorrow was going to be gorgeous and sunny, and we were weary from the big push to get out of Madison. I'd honestly never learned much about Teddy Roosevelt, other than he had a love for the land. I remember a picture with him and John Muir I'd seen once before, so he also had to care about preservation. I was curious why this place was named after him. He had come to these lands to hunt some of the last bison, but as the story goes, on Valentine's Day in 1884, both his wife and his mother died. His mother's passing was caused by typhoid, his wife's death related to complications during childbirth to their daughter Alice. TR was distraught, apparently scratching an "X" in his journal that day and writing "the light has gone out of my life." He gave his days old daughter Alice to his sister, and headed on a train west to be a Dakota rancher. He stopped at Medora, a historic town that remains just outside the South Unit's boundary to this day. He wanted more
solitude to he headed 34 miles north and created the Elkhorn Ranch, building a home in a Cottonwood grove along the Little Missouri River and acquiring livestock. He became a bona fide cowboy, roping and branding his cattle, transforming him from an Eastern "dandy" to a man of the land. As Terry Tempest Williams writes in her book The Hour of Land, "Here at Elkhorn Ranch, Theodoore Roosevelt was comforted in stillness and emboldened by the badlands. Penning thousands of pages in his journal, he may have written himself back to a renewed state of mind." Then came a hard winter in 1886-87, which reduced his livestock by 60% and he decided to leave the badlands, returning to New York and to politics. His time here was formative for him individually, attributing his time at Elkhorn to preparing his character for the presidency. It was also extremely formative for the nation and the vision of conservation. As Valerie Naylor, previous superintendent of this park has said, "It's true that TR was a nature lover before he built the Elkhorn Ranch, but it was not until he settled in the badlands, and discovered the vulnerability of this fragile ecology to profit-seekers from the outside, that he began to ponder the policies that culminated in his unsurpassed achievements as our first conservation president." (also excerpted from The Hour of Land). By the time he was finished serving as the 26th president from 1901-1909, he was responsible for protecting 150 national forests, 51 federal bird preserves, 4 federal wildlife preserves, 18 national monuments, and 5 national parks- about 230 million acres in all (!!!). He has become a new hero of mine, and I'm grateful for him and other visionaries of the time who saw the potential for these places to be extracted for their minerals and resources, something that is a controversial topic today. In fact, there is something called the Bakken oil field just to the north of the park, a large oil boom that is extracting about 1 million barrels of oil per day. The BLM leases land to energy companies for cheap (sometimes as low as $2 per acre of public land), and the oil and natural gas get extracted. It is increasingly encroaching on not only the visible boundaries of the park, but sometimes threatens space within the park as well. Valerie Naylor during her time almost exclusively would take on each lease case by case, finding compromise with the companies that would impact the quiet and visual landscape surrounding the park. TRNP is now an island in a sea of fossil fuel development, which requires vigilance on the part of park employees to protect what remains a soulful experience within the park.
So that is how the place got its name. We never made it to the north unit where only the foundation stones of the original ranch cabin remain, but we did have a great sunny day to explore. We set off on a hike to check out a petrified forest. We were greeted with this sign upon entering:
We set off to be challenged and renewed. The hike begins on a vast grassland, and pretty soon upon taking the left turn one comes to quite early on the excursion we encountered a lone bison. I don't know if you've spent much time around large ungulates, but they often like their space and it's good to give them plenty. Bison seem particularly strong, stubborn, and are more intimidating than the moose I've spent time with. It was also the end of mating season, so the males can be unpredictable and ornery. We moved wide off the trail to give this guy some space, since he took notice
and didn't take his eyes off of us until we were well on our way. Then the trail descended into this marvel of a geologic story. Among eroding badlands were the remains of an ancient petrified cypress swamp. These stumps are dated to have stood 45-65 million years ago. So imagine that long ago was this cedar swamp, which over time became covered by an inland sea, depositing layer after layer of sedimentary rock. After that the sea dries up and becomes a vast landscape to become these grasslands, that begin eroding to reveal the sea that once was, and within that the ancient cedar swamp. Talk about feeling incredibly small in this story of time and transforming landscape. Unfortunately another lone and ornery bison rest at the foot of much of these unearthed stump, and we chose not to venture much further as the girls were not so keen on another bison encounter within close range. I did manage to snap some photos of the formations and petrified trees here:
It was so windy that day, and with the bison we decided to turn back towards camp. I let Gemma take some pictures.
So on our last morning we made our way to a large prairie dog town where we'd done an early morning hike the previous day with golden eagles circling around and coyotes sitting calmy aroung the prairie dogs in the morning sun. I really like spending time around these small rodents, and even saw one sunning itself as I was with my morning tea. This last series of photos also shows our camper at long last, as some of you have requested. You should come to Theodore Roosevelt sometime, I recommend the shoulder seasons when it's less busy, and also to take that full petrified forest trail if you can. Be prepared to feel small, and also let yourself be soothed by the long view. It's big sky at some of its finest. Next time I hope to take in some star views as well.
And some final shots, the wild horses kept showing up wherever Gemma went. She developed an affection for this small band and wanted her pic with them in the background. Then Esme had to have one too, of course...
Stay tuned for more posts coming soon about Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, it's been a full month in big sky country! Love to you all from the #radicalsabbatical