More RV Adventures: Theodore Roosevelt National Park South Unit

We pulled into the park early in the morning when the sun was coming up.

Sunrise

It had a nice campground called cottonwood a national campground. No hookup but nice spots with good rates. As we found out later in the day the bison come into the park. They will just lay around in the RV spots or eat.

We went to the visitor center and museum first. Then the small town of Medora. Where they have a lot of shops and restaurants. Looked through some of the shops but there were lot of them not open yet. They have a couple campgrounds and motels there also.

We drove the 36 mile scenic drive through the park. There is a lot of petrified wood exposed in the badlands.

There is a blue-gray layer of clay that has been traced to ash from ancient volcanoes far to the west. Some of the views were beautiful.

scenic view

We saw bison throughout the park and small calves too. The first time for me to see the babies.

They were reintroduced in 1956 and elk in 1985. We saw mule deer and white tail deer and three turkeys. They were quite large. Wild horses roam in the south unit, we saw a few. There were hundreds of prairie dogs running all over the place.

Roosevelt had two ranches in the badlands. He pursued his interest in establishing the U.S. forest service. He established 5 national parks and 51 wildlife refuges. He proclaimed 18 national monuments. They have a lot of Roosevelt memorabilia in the visitor center.Very nice place to visit.