Wednesday, June 19
The Journey from Epping, ND, to Medora, ND
We woke up to 43-degree weather, but it was supposed to get to 71, and the rain had stopped overnight. After showers, we headed south toward Medora.
The drive from Epping to Medora was mostly through relatively flat plains with subtle undulations. As we headed south on US-85, we passed several landscapes with steep canyons, buttes, and eroded formations characteristic of the Badlands.
Red Trail Campground
We had reservations at the Red Trail Campground in Medora, next to the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and about an hour south of the North Unit. Though it was in Medora, it was off the main drag. It cost $43.20/night with my discounts.
Medora
After setting up the camper, we drove into Medora.
Medora is a small, historic town founded in 1883 by French nobleman Marquis de Morès. It became a boom town and a hub for the cattle industry, complete with ranches and a meat packing plant—though all of the Marquis’ ventures failed by the fall of 1886. By then, Medora was almost a ghost town until its revival in the 1960s.
Entrepreneur Harold Schafer and his Gold Seal Company started restoring and modernizing the downtown area in 1962. He also developed many tourist attractions, now managed by the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation (TRMF). Today, the small town is a tourist hotspot and a gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
We drove through the bustling downtown area and found a parking spot near a strip of tourist shops. We wandered through the shops and even grabbed some ice cream.
Then we drove to the site of the Medora Musical. The set looked amazing, and we were excited to see the show the next night.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park – South Unit
We then decided to drive into the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park covers 70,446 acres of land in three sections: the North Unit, the South Unit, and the Elkhorn Ranch Unit. The Little Missouri River flows through all three units of the park. The park’s larger South Unit is nearest to Medora. The smaller North Unit is situated about 80 mi north of the South Unit, and Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch is located between the North and South unit.
Due to major repair work on six miles of road, the South Unit’s previous 36-mile scenic loop was now a 44-mile out-and-back round trip. During our drive, we enjoyed the stunning landscapes and saw bison, wild horses, prairie dogs, and even a coyote checking out a prairie dog town.
Thursday, June 20
Theodore Roosevelt National Park – South Unit
The previous day, we only had time to drive through the park quickly, so today, we went back through the park to explore it more thoroughly.
Visitor Center
We stopped in the visitor center, explored the displays, watched the film, found a magnet for our camper refrigerator, and got our passports stamped. The museum had artifacts from Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency and time in the Badlands.
Just outside the visitor center sat Teddy Roosevelt’s Maltese Cross Cabin. While it looked small, the three-room cabin, built out of Ponderosa pine, was considered large by North Dakota standards. The cabin initially sat on Roosevelt’s Chimney Butte Ranch, seven miles away. Due to its historical significance, the cabin traveled to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis and the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exhibition in Oregon. After standing at the North Dakota capital grounds in Bismarck for many years, the cabin returned to the park in 1959.
Skyline Vista Overlook
View from high atop Johnson’s Plateau, where we were treated to incredible views of the Little Missouri River, the western horizon, and the surrounding badlands.
Peaceful Valley
A short side road took us to buildings that were once part of the oldest dude ranch in the state. Most had been renovated for other uses over time. We took a short 1/4-mile trail to the Little Missouri River and walked along its banks. We saw one person walk across the river to hike the Ekblom Trail, which continued on the other side of the river.
Wind Canyon
A short loop trail alongside a wind-sculpted canyon gave us one of the best views of the Little Missouri River in the South Unit.
Coal Fire
A recent wildfire started a new vein burning right next to the Scenic Loop, between Wind Canyon Trail and Boicourt Overlook. Since this was an active burning and fumes were being released, it was fenced off, but we could smell the sulfur as we drove by.
Boicourt Overlook
Boicourt Overlook was a 0.2-mile paved, accessible trail. Pronounced “boe-court,” this was a great overlook to see a wide expanse of prairie land, rolling hills, and badlands formations, and you can see for miles and miles.
A 30-yard dirt path from the paved viewpoint area heads straight toward the bluffs, giving me the best views of the rock formations.
Buck Hill
Buck Hill trailhead was at a small roundabout at the end of a one-mile road off the scenic road.
This viewpoint is a short walk up a steep hill. As the highest accessible point in the park, it offers incredible 360-degree views of the park. The south hill will reveal the badlands in all their alien glory, and the north hill will provide a gentler prairie landscape.
Coal Vein Nature Trail
We eventually reached the barricades at the end of the scenic road. A side road took us to a trail for the Coal Vein Nature Trail.
Among the layers of rocks beneath the badlands at Theodore Roosevelt National Park are veins of coal. Although typically deep underground, some of these veins are at or near the surface of the Earth. In 1951, during a storm, lightning struck one of these shallow veins in the park’s South Unit, catching the coal vein on fire. For 26 years, until 1977, this coal vein burned beneath the park’s surface.
I walked down the trail for about a half mile. Although the coal vein is no longer burning, this trail did wind through a badlands area with interesting formations. I especially liked a twisted tree perched on the end of a hill.
Painted Canyon
We drove back to the South Unit entrance and then down the interstate to the Painted Canyon Visitor Center.
We got sweeping views of Badlands Canyon from the Visitor Center parking lot. I hiked the Painted River Nature Trail, a one-mile loop that descends into a picturesque Badlands Valley. Though it was a loop, people straying from the trail had formed several paths, which caused me to wander around a few times, trying to find the correct path.
Pitchfork Steak Fondue
Before the musical, we had tickets for the Pitchfork Steak Fondue.
The Pitchfork Steak Fondue is a buffet served in an outdoor pavilion overlooking the badlands just a short distance from the entrance to the Medora Musical Theater. Tickets were sold beforehand for specific times to control the crowd size. This buffet is unique because Cowboy Chefs load 12-oz New York Strip steaks onto pitchforks and cook them to medium-well in barrels of oil in front of us. They are served alongside a barbecue-style buffet with baked beans, baked potatoes, garlic toast, coleslaw, vegetables, fresh fruit salad, brownies, cinnamon-sugar donuts, lemonade, and coffee.
Seating was at picnic tables. The small Tjaden Terrace Bar booth sold beers, and Lisa and I got a couple from North Dakota Breweries. It was a beautiful evening, and we enjoyed the breathtaking view of the Badlands. Near the end of our meal, we listened to some live music performed.
Medora Musical
The Medora Musical is in the Burning Hills Amphitheater, built into the side of a hill with the dramatic Badlands as a backdrop. Escalators took us down to the seating area from the top of the bluff. It was senior night, so I bought discounted tickets for great seats.
Before the show, a large elk appeared on the large bluff behind the stage. Rumor had that it is there most evenings.
The show, almost two hours long, blended high-energy songs and dance numbers with country, gospel, patriotic tunes, and classic Western music. The cast included talented singers, dancers, and musicians from around the country. The show weaved in the story of Theodore Roosevelt and his time spent ranching and exploring the Badlands in the 1880s, highlighting his love for the region and his role in conservation efforts.
The stage, which looked like an Old West town, moved around on tracks, and sometimes, it was open to the beautiful bluff behind it. Cowboys carrying an American flag rode up the bluff with fireworks and cannon fire during a very patriotic number.
It was a very fun show.
Friday, June 21
It was a rainy, cold morning, so we went on a road trip instead of exploring the park.
Ukrainian Cultural Institute
In Dickinson, we stopped at the Ukrainian Cultural Institute. This was mainly a small meeting and administrative office for the Ukrainian community in the area, but it did have several cultural displays. The best display was the wall with pictures of immigrants with a small description next to each one. It is always interesting to learn why they immigrated and whether they were successful with their goals and dreams.
Enchanted Highway
Our main plan for the day was to explore The Enchanted Highway, a 32-mile stretch of two-lane road in southwestern North Dakota. It’s famous for some of the world’s largest scrap metal sculptures created by Gary Greff. The highway starts at Exit 72 on I-94 near Gladstone and ends in the small town of Regent. Each sculpture along the way has a parking area and a kiosk.
Back in the 1980s, many small towns in North Dakota were slowly dying out, and Gary Greff worried that his beloved town of Regent, with its population of less than 200, would be next.
In 1989, the road from their town to I-94 was paved. Greff read a newspaper story about a local farmer who built a sculpture of a man holding a hay bale and how people drove out to see it and take pictures. This inspired him to create colossal metal sculptures to attract people driving on I-94 to come south and visit their town now that the road was paved.
Greff built the first sculpture in 1989, and he’s added six more since then. He’s currently working on two more. His ultimate goal is to create 10 sculptures and add more amenities for visitors.
Even though it rained on us a few times, we still had a blast seeing the sculptures along The Enchanted Highway. Here are the highlights:
- Geese in Flight: At 110 feet tall and 154 feet wide, this sculpture is the world’s largest scrap metal sculpture. The sunburst is made of well pipe, and the geese and fake hills are crafted from oil well tanks.
- Deer Crossing: This one shows a buck and a doe jumping over a giant fence, celebrating Regent’s native wildlife. It was made from seven oil well tanks, with metal pieces removed to show the details of the deer.
- Grasshoppers in the Field: This sculpture, featuring 12 to 40-foot-tall grasshoppers, was made from four oil field tanks and celebrates the local farming community.
- Fisherman’s Dream: A fun scene of fish leaping through a pond’s surface to catch a giant dragonfly.
- Pheasants on the Prairie: A tribute to pheasant hunting, with a rooster, a hen, and three chicks, all made of pipe and wire mesh.
- Teddy Roosevelt Rides Again: Because North Dakota loves Theodore Roosevelt.
- The World’s Largest Tin Family: This sculpture features a 45-foot-tall father, a 44-foot-tall mother, and a 23-foot-tall son, all made from telephone poles, old oil tanks, and various scrap metal.
Checking out these amazing sculptures was a fun and quirky adventure despite the rain!
When we got to Regent, it was raining so hard that about a foot of water was rushing down the streets. A river of water blocked the entrance to the Hettinger County Historical Society Museum, so we were unable to cross it and visit the museum.
The water wasn’t as bad in front of the Enchanted Highway Gift Shop, the welcome center for the Enchanted Highway. The shop sold t-shirts and wind chimes featuring all of Gary Greff’s huge sculptures, Enchanted Highway shot glasses, souvenir plates, sculpture miniatures, and ice cream. Outside, at the push of a button, a big animated Greff sculpture of a family in a cutaway house comes to life: kids jumping on a bed, others being dunked in a tub by grandma, mom cooking dinner, dad relaxing in his recliner.
But it doesn’t stop at metal sculptures. Greff also turned an unused school in Regent into the Enchanted Castle. This hotel now looks like a medieval fortress where you can stay. The inside is all themed also.
The Last Great Buffalo Hunt
We continued driving toward Lemmon and stopped at a roadside pull-off with signs about The Last Great Buffalo Hunt. Unfortunately, it was so foggy that we could barely see anything.
In 1882 and 1883, the American buffalo made their last stand in the Hiddenwood Valley and within a 30-mile radius of where we were standing. Hiddenwood Cliff was a key landmark for buffalo-hunting tribes who often camped in these buttes and badlands, filling the valley with stone tepee rings.
The Last Great Buffalo Hunt began around June 20, 1882, when 2,000 Teton Lakota men, women, and children traveled 100 miles on foot and horseback from Ft. Yates to this valley. They saw the hills black with thousands of grazing buffalo.
On the first day, mounted hunters with rifles killed 2,000 buffalo. Very few used bows and arrows. The hunters traditionally painted their faces, bodies, and horses to ensure a successful hunt. The buffalo were left where they fell, and the hunters returned to camp long after dark, too tired to celebrate or tell stories.
On the second day, the tribe worked quickly to butcher and care for the meat. Humps and other tender morsels were removed for immediate feasting, and women sliced the remaining meat into thin sheets to dry and make into pemmican and jerky.
On the third day, the hunters killed another 3,000 buffalo.
In three days, the tribal hunters killed 5,000 buffalo during this ‘Last Great Buffalo Hunt.’ The last 50,000 free-ranging buffalo had migrated into the Great Sioux Reservation area, and within 16 months, they were gone. Although white hide hunters likely killed most of the 50 to 65 million buffalo, these last ones were hunted by Native Americans in traditional ways on reservation lands.
We continued driving toward Lemmon and stopped at a roadside pull-off with signs about The Last Great Buffalo Hunt. Unfortunately, it was so foggy that we could barely see anything.
Lemmon
Cattle outnumber people 4 to 1 in South Dakota, making beef the biggest single sector of the state’s economy. However, in Perkins County, where Lemmon is the largest city, there are 37 cattle for every man, woman, and child. Seventy-eight percent of the land is grass.
Lemmon was an important stop on the Yellowstone Trail, the first transcontinental automobile highway in the northern tier of the United States, established on May 23, 1912.
Lemmon lost several businesses during the 1980s farm crisis and in the following decades. As with many small towns, the population has decreased with each census.
Petrified Wood Park
Occupying nearly an entire city block, the Petrified Wood Park & Museum is a roadside attraction that features large outdoor sculptures made of Mesozoic petrified wood and cannonball concretions. It was created in 1933 by Ole Quammen, a former mayor of Lemmon. In addition to the outdoor park, the site has a museum built out of petrified wood, which hosts smaller collections of fossils. A now-disused gas station building, also covered with petrified wood, hosts the city’s information center.
Upon completion, the park featured 4,100 tons of petrified wood and 300 tons of petrified grass, all collected within a 25-mile (40 km) radius of Lemmon in North and South Dakota. However, as some original material has been stolen or destroyed over the years, the park now only contains 3,200 tons of petrified wood and 100 tons of petrified grass.
The museum’s floor is petrified glass, and the centerpiece is a fireplace made of fossils. Inside are displays of fossil bones and teeth and relics of Lemmon’s pioneer past, including firearms, saddles, taxidermy and hunting trophies, and other 20th-century artifacts.
The Yellowstone Trail went through the middle of the park.
Boss Cowman Square
Lemmon was founded in 1907 by a cowboy, Ed “Boss Cowman” Lemmon, who was instrumental in transitioning from the open range to today’s fenced prairie.
Today, a scrap metal sculpture by the local native and world-renowned artist John Lopez honors him in a small park off Main Street. Lopez was given several dilapidated buildings and lots in the decaying downtown area, which he transformed into an art gallery and sculpture park.
One featured piece in the sculpture garden is “The Tree of Life,” framed by a circular opening in the wooden wall between the sidewalk and garden.
Misc Sculptures
John Lopez’s artwork is scattered throughout the town to include the Grand River Museum and the local high school.
Hugh Glass Memorial
Hugh Glass was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, trader, hunter, and explorer. He is best known for his story of survival and forgiveness after being left for dead by companions when a grizzly bear mauled him. The 2015 movie “Ravenant” starring Leonardo DiCaprio dramatizes this story.
To get to this memorial, we had to take a 4-mile winding, unpaved road that skirted the Shadehill Reservoir. The road was also a little slippery because of the recent rains.
We stopped briefly at a sign marking a viewpoint of an old buffalo jump before continuing down the road.
A lonely monument sits on a bluff overlooking the Hugh Glass Recreation Area and the reservoir. The bronze and rock monument briefly describes who Hugh Glass was and supposedly marks where Glass was attacked. The open grave that Fitzgerald and Bridger had dug for Glass was said to be still visible before water covered it in 1951.
Saturday, June 22
The Journey to North Unit on US-85
The road to the North Unit passed several areas of badlands that were as scenic as those inside the park.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park – North Unit
The North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park is about half the size of the South Unit, with 24,070 acres of badlands. It is much more compact than the South Unit, with one 28-mile road that follows the Little Missouri River most of the way through the park.
The formations in this park were younger and more rugged than those in the South Unit, with the distance from the prairie top to the valley floor being about 600 feet versus 250 feet in the South Unit. The North Unit has all the South Unit’s animals except wild horses. Instead, it has more bighorn sheep and the park’s only herd of longhorn cattle.
No one was at the gate checking park passes when we arrived, so we drove right in. The house trailer that served as their visitor center was also closed.
We first crossed an area known as the Long X Trail, where we saw a couple of longhorns grazing. Against the colorful badland terrain, a large bison herd was also seen.
A geological feature that we found interesting was a “slump.” This is where the layers of the rock were at an angle or slumped downward. We learned that this was caused by water eroding the base of a cliff.
Cannonball Concretions Pullout
This pullout showcased strange spherical boulders resembling giant cannonballs—hence the name. Some lie among the sagebrush flats, and others protrude from the eroding cliffs. They are perfectly smooth and round.
They were formed when mineral-rich water seeped down through the porous layers that made up the badlands and deposited those minerals in spaces or gaps in the sediments, often forming around a core. As more layers are deposited, the concretion builds outward like a pearl before being exposed to erosion.
Walking around and through the ravine canyon, we saw vertical pipe caverns created by the erosion of the softer rock within the butte. The caprock on the top shields the cave. It was interesting.
Bentonitic Clay Overlook
The blue-black popcorn-like soil that caps the plateau 50 feet below this point is bentonitic clay. Bentonite clays flow when wet. This bluish-colored layer can be traced for miles up and down the river.
Caprock Coulee Trail
We stopped at the Caprock Coulee Trailhead, whose name comes from two geological features. Caprock is formed when softer sedimentary rock, such as sandstone or volcanic ash, is eroded underneath harder rock, such as limestone or basalt. Coulee refers to steep ravines that can be wet during the summer and dry during the winter. They derive it from the Canadian French word coulée, which comes from the French word couler, meaning “to flow.”
It had rained hard the day before, so we could only walk about a mile of the trail before it became too muddy to go farther. It was a fun trail, and we saw some interesting rock formations and flowers. We could also see large chunks of petrified wood protruding from the eroded cliffs.
Riverbend Overlook
This overlook is considered the most beautiful in the park and is even credited with the reason for the national park’s creation. This high overlook provides dramatic views of the Little Missouri River floodplain. A shelter built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from natural materials from the park in the 1930s stands on the edge of the butte. We even saw a bison herd down in the valley, which added to its beauty.
Oxbow Overlook
This overlook is at the end of the North Unit Scenic Drive. It offers beautiful sweeping panoramic views of the canyon and the meandering river.
Medora
When we returned to Medora, we walked around the downtown area, which was only three blocks long and three blocks wide.
We walked through a couple of gift shops, including one selling “official teddy bears” wearing a volunteer cavalry uniform replica of what Theodore Roosevelt wore in the battle of San Juan Hill.
We also visited the free Harold Schafer Heritage Center, which told the story of Harold Schafer, a marketer extraordinaire and outstanding philanthropic citizen. Modern-day Medora can be traced to this man and his wife. The Heritage Center clearly and interestingly presents the background and aspects of this couple. His marketing of Gold Bond Glass Paste, which had no glass or paste, and other products such as Mr. Bubble, made him a multi-millionaire. He used his money to develop and grow Medora and is credited with much good. The museum displays all the products Mr. Schafer manufactured, his office, and the 40th-anniversary gift given to him by his employees.
Chimney Park
We then drove to Chimney Park and walked around the De Mores Packing Plant Ruins.
The packing plant was built and began operations in 1883. It was built by the Marquis de Morès, a pretender to the French throne who was determined to revolutionize the meat-producing industry by “shipping processed beef directly from the range to the consumer.”
He built his operation in Medora, along the east bank of the Little Missouri River, near where the Northern Pacific Railway crossed the river. His venture failed, and the facilities were closed in 1886.
The building was destroyed by fire on March 17, 1907. In 1936, North Dakota’s State Historical Society acquired the site. As part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, markers were placed at the foundation corners of the structures, and portions of the slaughterhouse foundation and chimney were repaired.
Today, the site is a 20-acre park with several picnic pavilions. We walked around the ruins, where several informational signs told the story of the packing plant.