Big Time in The Badlands

Arriving in Medora from Belfield had great anticipation after seeing nothing along Route 21, the signs of life and RVs let us know something special was ahead of us. We arrived at Painted Canyon Visitors Center around 10 am. If you are coming west, stop at the visitor’s center even if it’s just for the view. The visitor’s center at the entrance of the Teddy Roosevelt National Park will give you the same information, but the view is a great first glance of what’s to come once arriving in the park. The sights from the Painted Canyon lookout were amazing. Spanning from left to right, we could see nothing but badlands. I don’t know if it’s the contrast of the mountains or just the big-ness of it all, but the sky is so blue set against this beautiful landscape. It is hard not to imagine while we look over this landscape that goes on forever, about the settlers and wagons, hardship, struggle, and fighting that took place here. They call it the Badlands for a reason.

After snapping our pictures at the Painted Canyon Visitor’s Site, we headed 5 miles further west along I-94 to Medora. The Highways are easy to follow and the signage makes finding the park and Medora very easy. Once arriving in Medora, we knew we were in a touristy place. Not something typical of something we would typically enjoy, but part of being in Medora just the same. The town has be constructed to look like the old west and the general store gift shop and Old Missouri Saloon are fun to see from Storefront, but we found the stores themselves to be typical tourist traps with overpriced t-shirts and cowboy hats no respectable cowboy or girl would every wear. In addition, the prices are unfortunately not old west. We actually spent $18.00 in one convenience store on a bag of ice, a six pack of water, 2 Gatorades, and some buffalo jerky (very yummy by the way). Definitely buy your hydration outside of Medora.

The park entrance is right in the middle of town. I would have thought that the park would have been a little further out of town until I remembered there is no getting out of these Badlands so I guess it’s only natural that the park is right there. The visitors’ center is very nice and will pass you on some tour maps and guides. Our own personal research really paid off at the park. We had printed off the trails and trail descriptions from the national parks website and links and found those much more helpful than the trail maps at the visitors center that provided only minimal information concerning the length and difficulty of the trails. Make sure that when visiting the park to research online and gather trail maps first.

Upon our arrival to the park we were surprised to know that the admission to the park was only $10 dollars per car and was good for 7 days. Considering we were going to be in the park, both North and South Units, for three days, it was great knowing our admission was taken care of. The Southern unit has a 35 mile loop that ultimately took us about 4 hours to complete on day one. Along the loop there are trails and lookout points that we could stop, get out, and take some pictures. From a distance we had spotted a herd of buffalo and some wild horses on a Butte as we drove in from Painted Canyon. We thought that sightings like this were amazing but I had no idea that we would find ourselves so close to so much wild life over the course of the next week.

Our first wildlife spotting in the park started off small, plentiful and loud. We happened upon a town of prairie dogs or maybe it would be considered a city in these parts. Heads popped up, tails wiggled high in the air alerting all fellow dogs of our presence though we were little threat to this mad dashing critters. They were actually very cute and loved modeling for photos. We were intrigued by how these little guys communicate with each other from burrow to burrow in order to warn their families about the intruders in the “town”. The burrow holes stretched forever and were fun to watch.

We spotted our first close up of a Bison only minutes after arriving in the park. A single bull was wandering along the road. I drove along slowly while Joe hung out of the window and took pictures. “Move back, move up, slow down” he would direct me as the bull moved toward us, away from us, and out of view. At one point, I guess we got a little too close. While the bull allowed us some time to shoot pictures, we think he suddenly got the urge to mate with our little white Neon. He had enough of our foreplay because all of a sudden, the bull took off at us. It is amazing the speed these bulls can achieve in a single moment. “Go, go, go!” Joe shouted as he sat on the passenger door out the window holding on with one hand and still snapping pictures as I stepped on the accelerator. A little ways up the road we stopped, our hearts still pounding from the close call but totally accelerated from our first close encounter with the bison-kind.

We explored three trails with short hikes to the edges of mountains and hills. From the top point of the trails, we could see forever. The backdrop looks artificial, I still can’t believe that from the top of a mountain, there is still only badlands as far as the eye can see. We continued our loop drive and enjoyed the views from all pull-offs along the drive. We discovered a side road that climbed steadily upwards. This mountain trail was not on any of our maps and is definitely one that most people probably don’t turn off for… that is a major lost on their part. The Buck Hill Road to one of the highest points in the southern park system should not be passed up. We climbed to the top and although we almost blew off the top from the strong winds, we enjoyed the 360 degree view from the rock top. After our day one discovery of the south unit, we decided to head out of town and head to Beach.