NORTH DAKOTA

Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News: Theodore Roosevelt National Park – SOUTH unit

By: Jaycie Lillie, 8/21/23

We drove into Theodore Roosevelt National Park (the south unit)! We stopped at the visitor center to watch the park video and get our Junior Ranger books. The ranger announced that “Theodore Roosevelt” would be at his cabin soon.

When we got there “THE Theodore Roosevelt” was there. That’s how he introduced himself. He made sure to say the THE. I knew he was an actor, but the other kids liked it. He talked like THE real one pretty well. He asked some kids what they were going to be when they grew up. We had a future dolphin trainer and garbage man! (Ha!) He talked about he wanted to be a naturalist since “he” was a kid and that he wrote a book about a seal from looking at it in a fisherman’s grocery store. He wanted to bring the seal home, but the fisherman wanted money for it. The fisherman did end up chopping off the seal’s head for him to have, though! So little Theodore went home with a seal head and later mounted it on his wall!

The actor liked to say, “Welcome to MY national park”. Ha ha!

At the end of the program, I imagined the actor in an interview for a job and the interviewer asks his name and he suddenly becomes Theodore Roosevelt! Ha ha! He liked his job I could tell.

We then drove around the park! Immediately there was a long line of cars stopped on the road. A heard of bison!

The whole trip we were debating if they were bison or buffalo. Finally, at last Uncle Dude (Sam) looked it up. We found out both aren’t wrong. The two names came from different languages (French = Buffalo, Bison = Greek) and it was a long reading from a .org website. But basically, it’s ok if you use either name.

These are the bison we saw! We saw bison multiple times! One guy just drove right through the heard while they were crossing the road!

This little blue car was surrounded!

And at one point we had a Bison bull heading towards us head on in the road! Luckily he veered off the road to let us pass by.

We also saw some wild horses! They were very pretty horses. There are a couple hundred wild horses that live in the park.

We saw so many things!! Even prairie dogs, too!

Jett and Uncle Dude went on a long hike while the rest of us stayed in the car and drove around the park.

We stopped at some lookouts over the canyons.

Then we went back to pick them up when they were done. They had a CRAZY story to tell us. They were trail running and happened to sneak up on a lone bison that was on the trail. They froze about 20 yards from him. Uncle Dude took a few steps back, the bison bull took a few steps toward him. Then Jett and Uncle Dude slowly turned sideways to walk away (off the trail) to seek cover. Only to see two more Bison. They stopped. Then the big Bison bull started trotting towards them and he passed them by just 10-15 yards away. Then they headed back on the trail and got far away from them. It was a close call for sure! Uncle Dude didn’t get any photos or videos because he said he was genuinely afraid and was just trying to get them out of that situation as soon as possible. But he did get some photos from that hike.

And a pretty caterpillar they spotted:

We were just so thankful they survived! Bison can be super dangerous! These posters were hung up everywhere throughout the park warning people.

After that we ate a picnic lunch. We then drove back to the visitor center and swore in for our badges.

And then drove around to the Painted Canyon to check that out.

Then we headed into Medora, ND to check out the little town and did some shopping. We ended up eating Ice cream/Frozen Lemonades (thanks Grandad!).

Then we went back to the campground to hang out before dinner.Unfortunately, we had a heavy rainstorm that soaked Grandad’s tent and got Uncle Dude’s a little wet, too. So, after the rain stopped, we did our best to clean up and dry them.

By then we were all super hungry and went back into Medora to eat Pizza on the rooftop balcony. It was yummy.

We had a great time today exploring with Uncle Dude and Grandad!

Jett’s Wild Flight: Theodore Roosevelt National Park – NORTH Unit

By: Jett Lillie, 8/20/23

We woke up and loaded up in the car and headed to Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s North Unit! It’s about 1 hour north of the south unit. The park boundaries don’t touch. After a long drive we arrived at a small portable trailer which was supposed to be a visitor center!? We picked up a map and planned our day.

First, we stopped to check out these huge "cannonball" rocks. The signs said they are mysterious and not sure why these rocks formed in spheres. They were fun to climb on!

Then, we went to a nature hike (Little Mo’s Trail) and I briefly saw a snake but couldn’t ID it. It slithered away really fast before mama could see it.

We saw the "Little Mo" River

After the nature hike, we had a picnic.

We then drove to a 4.5-mile hike that we wanted to conquer. My dad, mom, Uncle Dude and I went on the hike while Jaycie and grandad took naps and played animal crossing in the truck.

We started up the hill and it seemed like we were going uphill for the first mile. Our hike was like 450ft up and 1 inch down then 227ft up and 5inches down, etc… so pretty much only uphill! At least that’s what it felt like. Once we were to the top, we could see the Little Missouri (aka: little misery) River. And could see canyons on the other side. We were so high!

Daddy's shirt matched the lines in the Rocks.

At one of the top of the buttes, we saw a huge petrified log!

The canyon was so big! I was not expecting to see it.

We had to be careful on the trail because there were lots of holes and places where the trail had washed out or the ground gave out.

On our hike we saw 1 lonely bison 🦬, off in the distance. Can you spot him below?

We also saw a handful of birds, lots of butterflies, prickly pear cactus, and a toad.

Also we saw a wild Tiger Lily that my mom just had to take a photo of.

We did see a lot of evidence of Bison! Tons of Bison patties along the trail and several hoof prints. They both were so huge!

Finally, we finished the hike!

Once we finished, our legs and feet were hurting, and later that evening I rolled my ankle, and it still really hurts when I move it.

Before we left the park we finished driving out to the end of the scenic road and took pictures by the overlook. It was windy and they had to hold onto their hats!

We then drove back to the campsite and Grandad grilled out for us. He made me special chicken and sausage without sauce. It was so yummy!

We wanted to see the northern lights, but they weren’t wanting to shine for us these nights!! Bummer! :(. But we did have a lot of fun exploring North Dakota and our campsite was perfect! It fit us all!