National Parks: Theodore Roosevelt (Days 1 and 2)

Jason and I visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park as kids and again several times once we were first married. Neither of us had ever camped in the park and this time we were bringing kids. We were so excited to share the North Dakota Badlands with Natalie and Gavin.

Day 1:
After driving across North Dakota, we stopped at the Painted Canyon, a beautiful section of the Badlands before the main entrance of the park. We took in the overlook and started to hike. I assumed we'd just do a section of the trail and head back, but, man, does my family like to hike. We did the entire loop, with the kids taking photos the whole way. The summer rains have left the Badlands the most green and lush I've ever seen them. Our hike was beautiful.

With Junior Ranger CDs, Junior Ranger booklets and hiking medallions in hand, we drove off to the park's main entrance. A short drive through the park led us to Cottonwood Campground, nestled in the trees near the Little Missouri River. Honestly, I was stunned by our campsite. I knew it was going to be fairly rustic (no showers, basic restrooms) and could involve roaming bison, but I couldn't have prepared myself for how beautiful it was. We had a semi-private site, with tons of trees and plenty of room for our big tent. Behind the site, several worn paths led through the grasses to the beach of the river. The buttes loomed in the background.

The kids went crazy. They roamed through the trails and begged to stay here on another trip - just a few minutes into this one. I had to agree with them. This would be worth returning to.

Once camp was set up, we headed to Medora. Dwain had given us free tickets to the fondue, so we enjoyed that first.

Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt stopped by during dinner.

Before the musical, we had a little time to work on the Junior Ranger booklets. (I will write a separate post on this wonderful program later.)

We really enjoyed the musical. It had been about 11 years since we'd last seen it. The kids were invited up on the stage and were mesmerized by the variety act, Flight Crew. After a late night, we hunkered down at camp and got the most amazing sleep.

Day 2:
I would come to appreciate early mornings on this camping trip. Thanks to the fresh air, hikes, and trying to get kids to sleep before 10:30 p.m., we crashed pretty early ourselves. The sun and birds woke me by 6 a.m. each morning and instead of wanting to roll back over (as usual), I was ready to get up. My family rose shortly after.

After breakfast, we headed to Medora for our trailride. It had already been a year since the kids had riding lessons and even more than that for me. We were all ready to enjoy the Badlands by horseback.

It didn't disappoint. Of course the horses are pretty programmed to just follow their buddy, but with two young kids I was totally OK with that. And I'd had a few bolting experiences on open trail rides, so a nice calming ride was good for me too. Jason rode behind me, happy as can be.

How is it we end up doing  Nat & a Cat even on vacation?

Meet Captain Redneck. He is not available for adoption.

For the afternoon, we attended a ranger program on Theodore Roosevelt's cabin (which made earlier appearances in Bismarck and Fargo), finished the kids Junior Ranger booklets and visited the ranger station. We hiked the Wind Canyon trail and saw our first herd of bison.

We wrapped up the day with a drive through the main loop. Both kids fell asleep (too much fun) and Jason and I had time to visit and enjoy the beautiful views. We saw some bison, a dead rattle snake and the gorgeous buttes.

At one point, I had this horrible instant thought of, "What would happen if we saw a car drive off the road?" I'm not a fan of winding roads and drop-offs and get quite nervous on drives that involve them. I pushed the thought out of my head and kept driving.

Not 10 minutes later, we saw several cars pulled off the road near a bridge. Hardly anyone had been out driving during the whole loop. As we slowed down, we saw several people looking over the edge of the bridge. And then we saw the SUV, flipped on its side, down in a ravine, all of its airbags deployed. I pulled over and Jason was out of the van before it stopped moving. "I need to help," he said.

I sat with the sleeping kids for a few minutes, before putting down the windows, shutting off the van and going to help too. Talking with the ladies on the bridge I learned the ambulance was on its way, two women were still in the car and a third woman was resting in a nearby camper. At least eight men were down in the ravine, trying to get the backseat passenger of of the vehicle. After much effort, they finally helped her climb up the steep drop and the women walked her to the camper.

The last woman to rescue was nearly 90, with a bad hip and very little upper body strength. What she lacked in strength she made up for in an extremely positive attitude and sense of humor. She needed to be lifted out of the sideways passenger seat, carried over the gap under the car from the ravine and then hoisted up the steep bank.

I've never seen people work so well together. The men all worked together to support her body, lift her carefully and work her way up the incline. It's amazing everything went as well as it did.

One woman had a slight cut and a chipped tooth. There were no other injuries.

The ambulance arrived about 20 minutes later. Emergency help cannot get to the middle of a National Park quickly. In the meantime, a guy with his EMT drove by and assessed the women. We stayed until help arrived and Jason could give his report to the Park Ranger.

I went back and forth from the accident scene to the kids to make sure they were alright.

If the driver hadn't been able to climb out of the car, down into the ravine and back up the incline to flag down passing cars, no one would have seen the car. The guard rail was damaged, but it wasn't obviously newly damaged, nor were there tire marks on the road. What a blessing that everything turned out as it did.

If that wasn't enough excitement for the afternoon, on our way home we watched as a huge bison climbed down a mountain at a surprisingly fast walk.

Then, we watched as tourists continued to stand by their vehicle taking pictures as it walked in front of their car!

Our photos are blurry because we are in our van. With the windows closed. Many, many feet away with a zoom lens.

Thankfully, no one was injured.

We drove back to our campground shaken but happy. Seeing a bison in our campground near the office didn't help matters, but we made the most of things and enjoyed a nice dinner together. The kids played football with new friends and we played cards as a family before saying goodnight. What a day! What a visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.