Theodore Roosevelt

2022-07-19
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

It was windy this morning. Really windy. We got up at some time in the morning, but our phones couldn't agree exactly what time it was. They must be talking to different cell towers and we're on the border of Central and Mountain time. So it was definitely morning, and definitely windy. I asked if the wind always blows this way and was told "No, sometimes it blows the other way."

I have never seen the North Unit of this park, so as a concession to me, we set off on the 90 minute drive. I was a little worried about losing cool morning hiking time, but it was only supposed to be 80 degrees today; cool and refreshing after the last two days in the triple digits. During the drive north some rain storms blew in. At one point the car thermometer read 54 degrees F, a little more than half of what it was yesterday. I will freely admit that "half" doesn't make any sense with temperature scales like F and C, but you get the idea. It was a lot cooler. And windy.

Up at the Northern Unit they have road construction going on, so we waited at a light for a pilot car. It took the car about 17 minutes round trip, so don't miss it by a minute or two. Once past the construction (currently at the level of one vehicle sweeping the road) we continued on to the trailhead for the Caprock Coulee Loop. The rain had blown past and it was mostly sunny when we set off on a 4.4 mile loop.

About half-way in, we had to break out our rain coats and nestle the cameras in our packs as the rain started. And did I mention it was windy? It was about this time that we crossed the park road. We decided that wet pavement would provide surer footing than wet rocks so we headed down the road. About a quarter mile down the hill, a herd of bison was blocking the road. We tried a couple times to hitch-hike our way through the herd, but people either didn't have room or decided I looked shifty. I can't blame them. The rain had stopped by now, so we headed a quarter of a mile back up the hill and back on the trail for the second half of the scheduled loop.

I will go on the record saying that I loved this trail and totally thrilled that the bison forced us back on it. It may be my favorite trail of this trip. The views were amazing, the hiking varied from panoramas to up-close views of rock features. There aren't pictures from the second half of the hike due to the weather, but they would be awesome. The trail is not for the faint of heart though. It crosses several narrow ridge lines, some side-hill paths with drop-offs, lots of rocks (though no need to use your hands) and quite a bit of steep climb and descent. But it's the best trail I've hiked in this park and one of the best this trip. We completed the loop with only spritzes and rain threats.

We then drove up to the end of the road in the Northern Unit, Oxbow Point. Apparently the buffalo had moved to pastures greener than the asphalt. The wind at the Point was easily 30 MPH, and it tried to push me off the edge. It made for some unpleasant viewing, so we cleared out.

On the way down we encountered the heard of bison, but this time in our car. We took a few more bison pictures to add to the pile. They walked just a few feet from the car though it is hard to tell if they were being indifferent to the car or to us.

We headed back to the Southern Unit through more rain. However, when we arrived the tent was dry. It was still breezy but the rain hadn't touched this area; it had stayed north for whatever reason. We grabbed some lunch in town and took a nap in the tent (last night's wind was pretty noisy and we didn't get enough sleep).

We stopped at the Southern Unit Visitor Center on the way out to our next hike. The Painted Canyon VC is just a shop, and while it's a fine place to buy tchotchkes, we wanted to see if this center had anything interesting. The cool thing was that they had elk and moose antlers, a bison skull, and a bighorn sheep horn that you could handle. By this time we've seen almost all those animals and wondered how much work it was to haul around each of those appendages all day. The answer is "a lot." The elk have it especially rough as the center of gravity is far from their skulls and the antlers are quite heavy. The ram horns are also a lot heavier than we would have thought. Moose antlers aren't as bad.

Next up was the Petrified Forest Trail. It's about a 30 minute drive on dirt roads to the trailhead. There is a cool self-closing lift gate you have to go through to start the hike.

We then headed out across the prairie, aiming for the big cache of petrified wood. It's primarily stumps but enough other pieces to be appreciated. After taking a large number of pictures, we went on out into the prairie proper. Due to time constraints we headed on back to get to the car before dark. It was a four mile hike.

Driving Distance 200 miles

Hiking Distance 9 miles