Theodore Roosevelt National Park ND

This is a very under-appreciated National Park named after a man who did much to preserve the American wilderness. The North Dakota Badlands are here - greener and more rolling than the South Dakota version.

We took a hike down into the canyon to get a different perspective. The hike is called "Painted Canyon" for obvious reasons.

There are wild horses in the park and we saw a group munching on the grass.

I learned a little about Theodore Roosevelt and his passion for the outdoors and conservation. He came to North Dakota in 1883 to hunt bison and fell in love with the place. He returned to New York where tragedy struck. Just hours apart, Theodore's mother and wife passed away. This prompted him to returned to North Dakota and establish Elkhorn Ranch. He developed a love of the outdoors, and later when he was president, Roosevelt played a seminal role in conserving American land and establishing the National Park system.

One of our goals is to visit all 59 parks, and we owed it to Teddy to drop in on his namesake park. This makes 25 parks visited and counting. 

Next stop, Badlands NP in South Dakota.