While visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park may not be as popular as seeing Yellowstone, Arches or Yosemite, you won’t be disappointed. It is the only national park in North Dakota and is absolutely worth visiting. There are three units in the park, the North, the South, and the Elkhorn Ranch Unit. We spent 2 days in the park exploring both sections.
While the South Unit receives more visitors, the North Unit is equally or perhaps even more beautiful. I loved it!
Visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park- the North Unit
The 14 mile long scenic drive is very pretty. Right after entering the park, you will see beautifully colored multi- layer hills lining the park road. The badlands, as the land here is called, have been shaped by both wind and water. The erosive action of nature is certainly visible if you hike around the rocks.
My favorite area was right at Cannonball Concretions Pullout. Here, you can see cool cannonball formations decorating the prairie and the rocks. I loved hiking around the area exploring the rocks and walking into little canyons in between them. It’s particularly fun to climb to the top of the rocks and enjoy the spectacular views of the surrounding grasslands. You can also catch the Buckhorn Trail here. We probably hiked a mile each way along the trail although the trail continues for several more miles.
The park also offers several amazing viewpoints. River Bend Overlook and Oxbow Overlook are wonderful places to admire the Little Missouri River and the valley. There are also several trails you can take from here. My husband enjoyed a hike to Sperati Point through the grasslands. I only joined him for a short while because the fear of the omnipresent buffalo made me turn around. Indeed, the buffalo are everywhere at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. So much so that you don’t need to look for them. They are along the road as well as on the nearby prairie! Surely, they are beautiful animals and we absolutely enjoyed seeing them.
Visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park - the South Unit
Painted Canyon
An amazing view of the badlands. An easy short trail (0.9 mile loop).
South Unit by Medora
In essence, the South Unit is older and less rugged than the north section of the park. Surprisingly, there are many areas of the scenic drive that are remarkably green. It was something we definitely didn’t expect.You can admire beautiful vistas of the buttes and the valley along the way. The views are absolutely spectacular. We drove all the way to the Badlands Overlook where we had to turn around because the road was closed from here on.
A cool thing to note, there are lots of prairie dog towns in the south unit. It is definitely fun to watch them scurry around barking. It almost seems like they draw more of a crowd than the herds of buffalo in the north unit.
Visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park - the Elkhorn Ranch Unit
This unit is certainly not as popular as the South or North units of the park but if you are a fan of history and Theodore Roosevelt, it’s definitely worth a visit. We actually visited it on our most recent trip to the national park in July of 2023. The Elkhorn unit preserves the location where one of Theodore Roosevelt’s cabins stood while he moved to North Dakota after his mother and wife died in 1884. While the cabin is no longer there, you can see the foundation stones that mark its location. Hiking the 0.7 miles to where the cabin was gives you a good glimpse into the wilderness and solitude Theodore Roosevelt experienced while living on the ranch.
