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Roosevelt National Park….North Unit

An encore of Roosevelt National Park!  We drove about an hour north to visit what is called The North Unit.  We found it to be very similar to the South Unit but with its own distinct personality.  We found a nice 6 mile loop hike that exposed us to all the biodiversity of the area and then we took our trusty scooter up the 14 mile park road to the Oxbow Lookout.

We snuck up on these folks shortly after entering the park.
We found it interesting the “noises” these bison make when communicating with each other.
Tough to get good perspective through the lens of a camera but…..

A few non-furry friends were there to greet us on the hot, but not humid afternoon.
These are not bison but wild turkey!
Upon almost sitting on this cactus, it hit me that I had never seen a cactus in the wild. They are actually fairly pretty in these surroundings.
Not exactly exercise but…….What a view while riding the scooter.
The road ahead while riding the scooter.
For about 1/2 mile we were “treated” to a hiking path similar to those in the Northeast.
There was much “ridge walking” to do on these trails.
We were taking a spur trail to see another prairie dog town but this herd of bison would have nothing to do with letting us go by.
The hiking here in the Dakotas is phenomenal but just not what we are used to.
As we got set to head to South Dakota we remarked to ourselves that once you are out of the Park area what you see are bales of hay, cows and single oil rigs.
These oil rigs dot the prairies. Notice that each one has around 3-5 storage containers. We saw the oil being collected by tanker trucks at quite a few of them.

 

6 Replies to “Roosevelt National Park….North Unit”

  3. The view of the valley from Oxbow Lookout was one of the most breathtaking and emotion-stirring ones I have ever seen. I had to research whether it had been used in the film, “Dances with Wolves” . (It hadn’t.) Loved the whole park.

  4. Where is DANDO?
    Missing you both. Waiting for your next post!
    Hope the adventure is treating you both well!

  5. When you are in this area you should look into taking a ferry to Catalina island. There are some hikes that you have to get permits for but I’ve heard they are amazing and you get to see the wild Buffalo that live there.

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