After three days of relatively easy driving (Memphis, Tennessee to Kansas City, Missouri, then to Fargo, North Dakota, and finally to Belfield, North Dakota), we arrived at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Our Airbnb for the next five days is Belfield, a 20 minute drive from the park’s main entrance. The only downside to staying in Belfield is the lack of a decent grocery store. Knowing this, on the drive over from Fargo we stopped in Dickinson to pick up groceries for the week. Belfield has a Dollar General and a few convenience stores, so at least beers and snacks are readily available.
For us the major selling point of Belfield is that it is not Medora, the touristy town that is home to the park’s main entrance. A 20 minute drive is a small price to pay to avoid tourist central.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park has always been on our list of places to go for several reasons: abundant hiking trails; beautiful scenery; relatively few visitors; and, no threat of bears. This place checks all of our boxes. Thinking about it, it is not easy to name places in the United States that meet all four of these criteria.
The park is comprised of three areas: South Unit; North Unit; and Elkhorn Ranch. Most visitors stick to the South Unit, the largest section of the park, which abuts Interstate 94 and is easy to reach. The main attraction of the South Unit is its 36 mile Scenic Loop Drive. Unless the last quarter of the loop road is closed for construction, as it was when we visited, then it’s a 54 mile out and back drive.
A petrified forest section is also located in the South Unit, accessed primarily by an hour-long drive on dirt and gravel roads, or an even longer hike. Because we only have a few days in the park, we opted against spending the time to visit this section. We’ll leave it for next time.
Lastly the South Unit includes the Painted Canyon Visitor Center and overlook (Exit 32 on I-94), which are also designated as a scenic rest area that is free to visit.
About an hour north of the South Unit, straight up Highway 85, is the park’s North Unit. Here the scenic drive is out and back, 28 miles roundtrip, loosely following the Little Missouri River.
Finally, Elkhorn Ranch, the site of Teddy Roosevelt’s ranch. This unit is located generally between the South and North Units, and can be reached after driving an hour or two on gravel roads that are somewhat maintained. A high clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle is strongly suggested, if not required. We knew better than to attempt this drive in a Nissan Maxima.
After considering our options, we decided to visit the South Unit three times and the North Unit once.
Our first day in the park was spent in the South Unit. We still have our America the Beautiful Pass, purchased last year for our trip to Oregon and California, so admission was free rather than paying $30 per week per car.
Quite a few people were at the small visitor center on a random weekday, much more than we expected (but only a small fraction of what you would see at most national parks). I’d say that we were the youngest by a fairly wide margin. The other visitors definitely were not hikers. They were more of the “stop and look at what the brochure suggests” crowd.
Five minutes after leaving the visitor center we stopped at the first of what are numerous prairie dog towns in the park. We spent about 10 minutes here, which is probably 5 minutes too long considering how many prairie dogs are in the park. They’re everywhere.
Our next stop was Skyline Vista, 0.2 miles roundtrip on a flat sidewalk. Like the name says, there are nice views at the end.
Before tackling the Scenic Loop Drive, we stopped for a picnic lunch at the Cottonwood Campground picnic site. Considering that the picnic tables are located in and among a strand of trees, we were a bit concerned about insects. But it turned out to be perfect. Our only companion was a large crow sitting in a nearby tree patiently waiting for us to leave so he could scavenge any crumbs.
The weather was perfect. A sunny blue sky with a few clouds, but not hot. A light breeze, but not windy. We could not have asked for a better start.
Thirty minutes later, just as we started the Scenic Loop Drive, we were suddenly caught in a ferocious downpour lasting about 15 to 20 minutes. The rain came out of nowhere, threatening to ruin the rest of our day.
During the downpour we came across the first of several bison sightings just off the road. There is nothing like a bison sighting to create a temporary parking lot as everyone stops to take photos, including us.
By the time we arrived at Buck Hill, our next destination, the rain was gone. We made the easy 0.2 mile roundtrip walk up a short hill to find beautiful, 360 degree views of the park. This is easily one of the three best views in the entire park (along with Wind Canyon and Oxbow Overlook).
Each designated overlook on Scenic Loop Drive has a small parking lot, enough for maybe 20 cars. On a weekday in early June there was very little traffic and plenty of available parking.
After leaving Buck Hill we encountered our first wild horses grazing in a small field off the side of the road. We had to remind ourselves that these are wild animals. You can’t just go up and pet them. The horses were kind enough to be standing near an area where cars could pull onto the shoulder of the road to park, which was very considerate of them.
By early afternoon the weather was again now near perfect, 70° F (21° C) and sunny. We drove over to the Lower Talkington Trail for our afternoon hike, 4.3 miles out and back over rolling green hills. Immediately at the start of the hike we walked by three bison grazing on grass at about a distance of 40 to 50 yards (35 to 45 meters). They paid zero attention to us.
Unlike the bison, the prairie dogs definitely did not ignore us. We had to hike through a prairie dog town for a good 100 yards or so. Those damn prairie dogs constantly barked at us as we moved through the area.
After finally leaving the yapping prairie dogs behind for good, we saw a wild horse about 100 yards away. A short hill blocked our view of the horse, so we decided to climb the hill to get a better view. Yep, nice horse, now about 70 to 80 yards away (65 to 75 meters).
As soon as the horse saw us, it started running directly towards us. This was no mistake. The horse was on a beeline straight for our position. We hightailed it back down the hill to the trail. A minute or so later the horse come to a stop on the hill in the exact spot where we had been standing, and began watching us intently.
Later a ranger told us that some of the male horses are very territorial. This one definitely wanted us to vacate his area.
Not long after we saw a few more bison at a distance grazing in a field. Again, the bison completely ignored us.
After hiking about 2 miles, Stephanie pointed to some ominous looking clouds in the distance and suggested we turn around. I saw no reason for concern, but agreed to turn around as we had nearly reached our intended end point.
It’s too bad Stephanie was not more observant. She should have seen the dark clouds 10 minutes earlier. That might have saved us from getting rained on. We were several minutes from the car when a light, steady rain began. As we pulled out of the parking area the light rain turned into a downpour.
Unlike the earlier storm, this one looked like it was going to last for some time, so we called it a day.
A few days later we returned to the South Unit to see the sights we missed on our first day and for some additional hiking.
Our first stop was at the Boicourt Trail, which is an easy 0.8 miles out and back. The first half of the trail is a paved sidewalk with decent views. For the best views follow the dirt trail to the lookout point at the end. It is worth it.
Next we went to the Wind Canyon Trail, a 0.5 mile loop. Without question this trail contains the most scenic ¼ mile walk in the entire park.
The real hike for the day was the Lower Paddock Creek Trail, a somewhat flat trail punctuated by occasional short but steep down and up sections across dry washes. The entire trail is 7.4 miles out and back. We planned on hiking most of the trail, about 6 miles total. Strong winds, however, caused us to cut it short to about 3 miles roundtrip. It wasn’t too bad, but enough to be annoying, particularly hiking directly into the wind.
Earlier in the day, at the Belfield post office, Stephanie asked someone how much it snowed in winter. The response was, generally, sometimes a lot, sometimes not so much. But snow is no big deal. Wind, however, is the major problem. I think we got a small taste of somewhat high winds.
Before leaving the park we stopped at Pleasant Valley Ranch to walk out to the Little Missouri River. When we arrived a large herd of bison were in the field in front of the ranch house. This was the first time we had seen a whole herd of bison, which was pretty neat. Our previous sightings had just been a few random bison.
The short walk to the river was nice. At this time of year the river is really shallow, not even knee high. We saw a couple of hikers cross the river to reach trails on the other side. After spending a few minutes at the river, we headed back to the parking lot.
And we quickly learned that numerous bison moved into the immediate vicinity, blocking us from returning to our car. So we stood on the trail watching the bison and waiting for them to move on. The ranch house is just past the small parking lot. A ranger stood on the porch watching the bison and us. There was nothing we could do but wait.
Twenty minutes later the bison finally moved on, fortunately down a different trail instead of walking directly towards us. Whew.
Probably the biggest risk hiking in the park is having a herd of bison move in behind you, cutting you off from the trailhead. It’s pretty easy to go off trail to avoid a few bison. Hiking around a whole herd could be a bit of a challenge.
Hiking in Theodore Roosevelt National Park (Part I):
Skyline Vista Trail: 0.2 miles
Lower Talkington Trail: 4.0 miles
Boicourt Overlook Trail: 0.8 miles
Wind Canyon Trail: 0.5 miles
Lower Paddock Trail: 3.0 miles
Total Miles Hiked: a fairly respectable 8.5 miles
Garrett and Stephanie
If you have not already done so, read our other post about Theodore Roosevelt National Park:
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota (June, 2025, Part II).
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