September 2018 - RV LeaguersRV Leaguers

A Rugged Landscape for the Strenuous Life

We’d never really thought of Theodore Roosevelt National Park until we decided to make touring national parks one of our major goals for this journey. To be fully honest, we didn’t know much about what North Dakota had to offer other than what we gleaned from a few North Dakota tourism airport advertisements featuring notable local Josh Duhamel beckoning visitors to his home state. And while there is a lot of what you might imagine – open roads over vast, nondescript plains – we were taken by the unexpected natural beauty and fascinating history of the state’s sole national park.

In 1883, a 24-year-old Theodore Roosevelt visited North Dakota and fell in love with the frontier life he found there. Investing in two ranches, he was eager to develop his hunting, ranching, and other cowboy skills as well as confront his physical issues with asthma. When he tragically lost both his wife and mother on Valentine’s Day the following year, he returned to the badlands of the Little Missouri River Valley, now found in the national park in his name, to grieve and to find solace. He frequented the rugged region throughout his life, even crediting his ascension to the Presidency and conservationist mission to his time spent there.

In 1899, Roosevelt gave his famed “The Strenuous Life” speech, in which he extolled the virtues of rejecting ease and seeking out hard work: “I preach to you, then, my countrymen, that our country calls not for the life of ease but for the life of strenuous endeavor… [L]et us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified, for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.” The speech reflected the very core values that he lived out in North Dakota.

**Theodore Roosevelt – Rough Rider, Conservationist, President**
[Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library (520.14-008)]

The focus on the importance of this place to President Roosevelt sets this park apart from every other national park that we’ve seen. While boasting the natural splendor visitors typically seek out from national parks, Theodore Roosevelt National Park felt like a much more personal experience. If you allow yourself the time to stop and take in your surroundings – the awe-inspiring badlands and vast herds of buffalo roaming nearby – you can feel first-hand why Roosevelt came here for both physical and emotional healing, as well as personal growth.

Teddy Roosevelt helped save bison from extinction, and many still roam his namesake park

Many prairie dogs also call this place home

While Theodore Roosevelt National Park might not be the most famous of national parks, it certainly ranks high on our list!

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Happy Trails,

Dan

From Friday-Saturday, August 17-18, we made our way from from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to North Dakota. We went a little out of our way to visit the astonishing Dignity statue in Chamberlain. We’re so glad that we did, not only because the statue is a powerful addition to South Dakota’s collection of monuments and sculptures, but also because the road north traced part of the Native American Scenic Byway and the historic Lewis and Clark expedition, flanked by spectacular views of the Missouri River.

South Dakota rest stops’ signature teepee

It was nice to get off the interstate and take the scenic route as we cut a relatively straight path through South Dakota.

Driving along the Missouri River on the Native American Scenic Byway

After a one-night stop at a camp right off of Route 83, just south of the border with North Dakota, we finally made it to our 41st state! We were determined not to leave the Northern sister state of our cherished new home state of South Dakota for last. Interestingly, so many people on the road to 50 states leave North Dakota for last that there are specific souvenirs made for the occasion and even a “Best for Last Club” based in Fargo.

Adding North Dakota to our cross-country trip was a no brainer. We were taking the northern route (mostly I-90) across the country to Seattle, and wanted to visit as many new places and national parks as we could on our way. North Dakota is home to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and, as we witnessed along the route before reaching I-94, home to many sunflower farms — at times creating a sea of yellow as far as the eye could see. We later learned that sunflower viewing is something the state officially promotes, and the Route 83 we took north from the state line to Bismarck is listed on this official ND tourism map.

So many sunflowers!

Another goal we have for our travels is to visit state capitals, and Bismarck was squarely on our route to Teddy Roosevelt. Admittedly, I wasn’t very excited about seeing this one because my quick google search had shown images of what appeared to be a fairly bland office building – quite different from the typical domed structures. However, we were very pleasantly surprised to find that, while there was no dome in sight, the Capitol Building perched over a sprawling green field and floral arrangement of the state name, overlooking a campus reminiscent of the National Mall that included the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum, the state’s largest museum.

After a walk around the campus, we visited the Heritage Center and Museum, a modern and intriguing location offering exhibits covering the state’s history from the earliest geologic formation 600 million years ago, to the early Native American people, to the present day. It was a lot of history to take in, but we tried to experience as much as we could in an hour before hitting the road again!

North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum

From there, we drove about 100 miles to North Park Campground in Dickinson, our base camp for our time in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park area. We were greeted by Holly, a friendly campground staff member who kindly offered a golf cart ride around the campground so that we could select our site. Holly was formerly a schoolteacher in Utah for four years, and recommended visiting the state in the Fall because the weather is still great. We were glad to hear that since we’re already planning to spend time in Utah in the coming months! After choosing a nicely shaded site, we settled in for our first “extended” stay of our journey – a whopping four nights – and prepared for our visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. More on the park later, and as always, follow our Instagram for daily updates and join our email list for the latest blog posts.

Happy Trails,

Dan