Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Theodore Roosevelt National Park covers 70,447 acres of North Dakota Badlands in three separate units along the Little Missouri River. The South Unit, adjacent to the town of Medora off I-94, is the largest and most visited, with a 36-mile paved scenic loop, the park visitor center, and Roosevelt's Maltese Cross Cabin. The North Unit sits about 70 miles north and offers a 14-mile scenic drive and significantly fewer crowds. The Elkhorn Ranch Unit, between the two, preserves the site of Roosevelt's second ranch and is accessible only by primitive road or on foot. Entry to the South Unit is off I-94 at Exit 24; the North Unit entrance is off US 85. A single $30 vehicle fee covers all three units for seven days. The park ranks 37th in annual visitation among the 63 U.S. national parks.

The park is best known for its free-roaming bison herds. Hundreds of bison graze the South Unit's grasslands and are reliably visible from the scenic loop drive — often blocking the road. The South Unit also holds the only population of free-roaming wild horses in any national park in the lower 48 states, a herd of roughly 70–100 animals descended from ranch horses. Roosevelt's Maltese Cross Cabin, his first ranch cabin, was relocated to the South Unit visitor center and is open for viewing. The badlands terrain of eroded buttes, colorful clay formations, and river breaks makes for some of the most dramatic landscapes on the Great Plains.

South Unit: Take I-94 to Exit 24 at Medora. The South Unit entrance station and visitor center are less than a mile from the exit. Medora is a small town with hotels, restaurants, and a summer outdoor theater. The Painted Canyon Overlook is at I-94 Exit 32, about 7 miles east, and has free access with no entry station.

North Unit: From the South Unit, drive 70 miles north on US 85 to the North Unit entrance near Watford City. US 85 also connects south to Dickinson. The North Unit is entirely separate from the South Unit — no road connects them through the park.

Elkhorn Ranch Unit: The site of Roosevelt's second ranch is accessible by primitive road from either Medora or the north — check with the South Unit visitor center for current road conditions and directions. High-clearance vehicles are recommended; the road can be impassable after rain.

By air: Bismarck Municipal Airport (BIS) is the closest commercial airport, roughly 135 miles east of Medora via I-94. Dickinson Airport (DIK), served by United Express, is about 35 miles east and is the most practical option for travelers specifically visiting the park. Car rental is available at both airports.

The North Dakota Badlands formed where the Little Missouri River cut down through layers of sediment deposited during the Paleocene epoch, roughly 55–65 million years ago. These sediments — part of the Fort Union Formation — include siltstone, mudstone, sandstone, and lignite coal seams laid down in ancient river floodplains and swamps after the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The most distinctive colors in the badlands come from the weathering of iron compounds in the clay-rich rock. Gray and brown layers are unoxidized sediment; the brick-red formations called scoria or clinker are clay beds that were baked into a hard, ceramic-like material when adjacent lignite seams caught fire and burned underground. Some of these fires burned for decades; the Coal Vein Trail in the South Unit marks one such site. The stripes of red running through gray and tan buttes are the park's visual signature.

Petrified wood scattered across the South Unit backcountry came from subtropical forests that covered the region 60 million years ago. As trees fell into floodplain sediments, silica gradually replaced the organic material, preserving trunk and branch structure in stone. Pieces still erode out of the hillsides across both units.

Bison are the defining wildlife of Theodore Roosevelt. The South Unit herd numbers several hundred animals and roams the full circuit of the scenic loop, frequently stopping traffic. The bison rut runs from late July through September; bulls butt heads and bellow across the grasslands in August and September. Stay at least 75 feet from bison at all times — they are fast, unpredictable, and have injured visitors who approached too closely.

The South Unit's wild horses — roughly 70–100 animals in multiple bands — are descended from ranch horses that escaped or were released decades ago. The NPS manages the herd to keep it at a sustainable level through periodic roundups. Horses are most reliably seen in early morning near Peaceful Valley Ranch and along the road between the ranch and the campground.

Prairie dog towns dot both units; the dogs stand upright and bark alarm calls at passing visitors, then dive into burrows as threats approach. Burrowing owls nest in vacant prairie dog burrows throughout the South Unit. Elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn are all present, with bighorn sheep reintroduced to the park in 1956 after being extirpated. Coyotes and golden eagles are common year-round. The park's dark skies and quiet make dawn and dusk drives productive for almost any species.

The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara peoples built earth-lodge villages along the Missouri River for centuries before European contact. Lakota Sioux and other Plains nations used the Little Missouri Badlands for seasonal hunting. The landscape was largely unknown to Euro-Americans until after the Civil War, when the Northern Pacific Railway pushed through in 1879–1883 and opened the region to cattle ranching.

Theodore Roosevelt arrived in September 1883 to hunt bison and quickly fell in love with the Dakota badlands. He invested in the Maltese Cross Ranch that year and returned in 1884 to establish the Elkhorn Ranch on a bend in the Little Missouri. He worked cattle alongside hired men, learned to ride western-style, and spent nearly three years total on the land before the catastrophic winter of 1886–87 — "The Big Die-Up" — killed an estimated 60 percent of the cattle in the region, including most of Roosevelt's herd. He sold out and returned to New York, but wrote in his autobiography: "I would not have been President had it not been for my experiences in North Dakota."

As president from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt established or protected 230 million acres of public land, including 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments. Congress established Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park in 1947 and redesignated it Theodore Roosevelt National Park on November 10, 1978.