Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Dakota

Day 5 & 6
As much as this is a home school trip for the kids, it is also an opportunity for me to visit almost all of the states I haven't been to yet. To qualify as having been to a state, I have to have either stayed overnight, driven through it, and/or eaten a meal in that state. Layovers on flights don't count. After this trip, I will have one state left: Alaska. That is how we landed at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. And I'm so glad we did! TRNP was a complete surprise and amazingly cool.

I had no idea what to do or where to go in North Dakota and I picked this place based on the reviews of the Badlands Overlook. The last time we drove through the Badlands 5 years ago through South Dakota, I was the only one awake. I had to decide whether or not to wake everyone up in order to see the view or let them sleep. Remember, Ruby was only 2.5 years old back then and we'd been on the road for a few days. She was having a rough day so I decided I'd just drive through and let everyone sleep.

We arrived around 3 or 4pm and headed straight for the overlook which is about 20 or so minutes from the entrance if you drive straight to it. There are a ton of scenic overlooks to pull over and take in views or walk down trails. We saw the most free roaming wildlife we have ever seen at national or state park. We saw wild horses, tons of prairie dogs, coyotes, antelope, deer, and bison. We got to the campsite around dinner time and found to our surprise a herd of mama and baby bison hanging out at the campgrounds as well. I suddenly felt how out there in the wild we really were. The coyotes that howled in the middle of the night reminded me of this as well.  We had to leave early in the morning but stopped at the Visitors Center before we left. I'm glad we did because they have a very informative display on the area and Theodore Roosevelt. We even bumped into other home school travelers.






















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