North vs. South… and the winner is… (let’s just say history repeats itself)

We managed to cram a lot into our short time in the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP); a 36-mile scenic drive, exploring the tiny cowboy town of Medora, a 12.8-mile hike, and a corn-pone musical extravaganza.

View from our RV - worth the effort!

We arrived at the Cottonwood Campground in the South Unit on Sunday afternoon. Our reserved site was lovely, with just one minor complication – it was a pull-through on the wrong side of the one-way road, meaning our door and awning faced the road, not the campsite. We pulled in and debated. Since we had three nights here we decided to do a little creative maneuvering (driving through an unoccupied campsite, doing a 3-point turn across a one-lane road, and going the wrong way down the one-way road). The end result - perfection!  

On Monday we spend some time walking around Medora.  A cute cowboy themed town, obviously geared toward the tourist trade. We timed the scenic drive to capture the sunset at Buck Hill, with beautiful 360˚ views of the surrounding countryside. 

The Bad Lands glow in the setting sun.

Prairie grasses on fire.

Enjoying the view.

Sunset 

We especially enjoyed two things unique to the South Unit – wild horses and vast prairie dog towns. We watched a stallion at a full gallop herd two fillies that had strayed onto the road. He was on a mission and nipping their butts the whole way back to the herd. Awesome to watch!  The prairie dogs are also just hilarious. Rog got a kick out of the prairie dog “wave” – as you walk through the town they pop up in sequence to sound the alert and it looks like fans doing the wave at a sports stadium. Lol.

Since we didn’t do much hiking in the North Unit, we opted for a 12-mile loop connecting several shorter trails. We started off at 8:30am and ran into a problem right away. There was a whole herd of bison at the trailhead – right where we needed to go. We detoured around them – not the last time we would execute that maneuver during our hike. The trail meandered for miles through grassland, near some interesting hills (I really loved finding petrified wood!), back and forth across the muddy Jones Creek, and right through several enormous prairie dog towns. There was an extreme heat advisory in effect and precious little shade, but the near constant breeze made it bearable.

You see the arrow pointing at the bison? That's where we need to go. Lol.

Long stretches of rolling hills and prairie grass.

Things got interesting when we came upon a lone bison lounging right in the middle of the trail. Knowing to give him plenty of space, we started detouring through the sagebrush. Apparently, Bubba was bored because we acquired a stalker. He never got too close, just enough to keep us nervously looking over our shoulders. We soon came across another lone bison puppy guarding the trail. Is this a tag team? With Bubba still on our tail, we next encountered a herd of wild horses on the trail in front of us. Maybe they’ll move? Not a chance. They eyed us like a gang of street corner thugs trying to decide if we were worth the effort. So back into the sage we went, giving them a wide berth too. Luckily, Bubba lost interest and we finished our hike without running into anything else larger than a prairie dog.

Meet Bubba. He gave us the stink eye and then started following  us. We did make good time. Lol.

This gang cut us no slack either. Beautiful, but I wouldn't want to mess with them!

Keeping a watchful eye until we were completely out of sight. 

Rog walking through a prairie dog town. Every little bump is a prairie dog villa - thousands of them!

Prairie dog wave. :)

A couple we met in Montana had highly recommended the Medora Musical – a local show put on in an outdoor amphitheater. We checked the reviews which were generally positive, so figured it was worth a try. The amphitheater was huge, with a great view of the hills. If you love Medora and small town, corn-pone humor get your tickets. We did like parts of the show, but it kinda felt like the local Chamber of Commerce got its own musical variety show. Too much of the show was dedicated to promoting the town of Medora and hawking various local goods including a preview from the Gospel Brunch musical show (Ugh!). They had plenty of talent and we enjoyed the show when they were covering classic C&W songs and celebrating their general redneckness. :)  The featured attraction, which changes frequently, was a visiting BMX bike demonstration that was actually quite good – just wish they’d have given them more time on stage.

Medora Musical

BMX demonstration was excellent!

So back to the question of which we liked better – the North or South Unit?  We gotta go with the North Unit. We thought it was more scenic and seemed to have more interesting hiking opportunities. Other than the prairie dogs and wild horses (and they couldn’t drag me to the Medora Musical again – LOL!), the South Unit just came up a bit short.

We head out early Wednesday, 8/17, and will stay one night in Spearfish, S. Dakota on the way to our next scheduled stop – five days in Custer, SD. 

Little Missouri River

Hello! My name is Rocky.

Sunset panoramic shot.

Moon rising.