Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the US, is a major figure in North Dakota History. North Dakota is a major figure in Roosevelt's history. He often asserted that "I never would have been President if it had not been for my experiences in North Dakota." It is appropriate that a park named after him would encompass the land that meant so much to him.
I was delighted that we came upon a bachelor band of feral horses, not to mention bison, early in our visit. The two greys started sparring gently, but it soon escalated until all the horses ran off.
The bison ignored the horses and just hung out.
Prior to the 1970s the Park Service attempted to capture and remove all horses from the park lands. After that time, however, the horses were acknowledged as part of the historical fabric of the park. Their numbers are managed and there are periodic roundups and adoption events.
One of our stops was at Wind Canyon. In most of the badlands water is the shaping force, but here it has been the wind. Ironically at the time of our visit, the wind here wasn't nearly as strong as at an earlier location.
I scrambled along the trail to a magnificent overlook.
Across the valley was another band of horses.
The Little Missouri River braids it way through the canyon on its way to join the Missouri River.
Rocks along the trail have been shaped into weird forms.
There is nothing to indicate whether the brick-shaped rock here was formed by nature or humans. Such regular shapes don't seem quite natural, but nothing else in the vicinity suggested extensive human influence.
Looking back up Wind Canyon.
I was very glad that there was no strong wind because the trail was narrow and steep and skirted the very edge of the canyon. A strong wind would have been very scary. Crawling on hands and knees scary!
The trail, however, provided the most wildflowers that I saw on our travels. I've tried to identify them all.
There are a number of sunflower species native to the Great Plains. Many of them are called Prairie Sunflower. I've not been able to determine which one this is.
These are Prairie Coneflower.
This small sumac has the unappealing common name of Skunkbush.
It has many uses, medicinal and otherwise, and has been widely cultivated. It is already past its bloom and now has fruits. They are edible.
The Prairie Rose is the North Dakota state flower.
A collection of flowering plants is tucked in among the grasses.
There are several varieties of yucca that can be found in the area. I couldn't identify which one this is.
The Sego Lily is the state flower of Utah.
Click your "back" button to return to the previous page or click for our picture album.