At the entrance to this park is Theodore Roosevelt's actual cabin. He stayed here after he left New York because his wife and his mother died within a day of each other. He fell in love with this area and later became known as the "Conservationist President" since he established significant areas of national parks and protected areas.
So today we explored the park named for him. It was a 36-mile loop around the park. It's called a 'badlands' area too, but it was very different from the badlands in South Dakota. Much greener and parts of it are a grassy plain. Quite beautiful.
Lots of wildlife to be seen, mainly bison. We didn't see any herds, but there were lots of loners. Like this guy wandering down the road.
And this guy resting.
A deer. Actually there were a pair of them, but we didn't see the other one until we were passed it. They had long ears.
We stopped several times and did a few different short hikes. This one was called "Coal Vein Trail". You can see the vein in this rock.
Walking out to this coal vein, we saw another critter. I saw it as we were passing along the trail. It was about 3-4 feet from the trail just sunning himself on a pile of dirt. Yikes! I spotted it and ran about 15 feet away. Gerard stopped and said, "Where"? He was only 3-4 feet away. He said, "Is it a rattler?" I said, "I don't know...but let's not find out!" He wanted me to get closer for a picture. He said it was only sleeping. Then what were those beady eyes doing watching him? The zoom on my iPhone worked just fine, thank you. We found out afterward it is a Prairie Rattlesnake, the only poisonous snake in the park. Gives me the willies. Needless to say, every step I took after that was only after careful examination of where my foot was planted. Gerard said I was walking too slowly.
So today we explored the park named for him. It was a 36-mile loop around the park. It's called a 'badlands' area too, but it was very different from the badlands in South Dakota. Much greener and parts of it are a grassy plain. Quite beautiful.
Lots of wildlife to be seen, mainly bison. We didn't see any herds, but there were lots of loners. Like this guy wandering down the road.
And this guy resting.
A deer. Actually there were a pair of them, but we didn't see the other one until we were passed it. They had long ears.
There were even feral horses. There were 3 of them here. This guy was on the road so we had to wait for him to pass.
We stopped several times and did a few different short hikes. This one was called "Coal Vein Trail". You can see the vein in this rock.
Walking out to this coal vein, we saw another critter. I saw it as we were passing along the trail. It was about 3-4 feet from the trail just sunning himself on a pile of dirt. Yikes! I spotted it and ran about 15 feet away. Gerard stopped and said, "Where"? He was only 3-4 feet away. He said, "Is it a rattler?" I said, "I don't know...but let's not find out!" He wanted me to get closer for a picture. He said it was only sleeping. Then what were those beady eyes doing watching him? The zoom on my iPhone worked just fine, thank you. We found out afterward it is a Prairie Rattlesnake, the only poisonous snake in the park. Gives me the willies. Needless to say, every step I took after that was only after careful examination of where my foot was planted. Gerard said I was walking too slowly.
Another trail we were on was called Windy Canyon. Pretty little spot.
All in all, a very nice day in the park. We came back to the RV for a late lunch with Tibby, then went into the town of Medora to check out a few of the historic sites. Turns out I didn't take any pictures! Anyway, the town was famous in the late 1800s for a French nobleman setting up a meat processing plant rather than having the beef all sent east for processing. A lot of the ranches in the west had their beef processed here. This town now has a population of less than 200 people.
So that's it for the Dakotas. We're off to Montana tomorrow, due west of here.
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