Our trip in 2019 to the Badlands National Park in South Dakota was supposed to include a trip to Wind Cave National Park. Sadly, for us on our flight out west we learned that the elevators had broken and there would be no tours. It took the park over a year to get the parts and fix the elevators.
My wife had very much wanted to see Wind Caves as well as Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Since the elevators had been operational for almost a year, we thought it was safe to make another attempt.
The plan was to fly out west, spend a few days in Teddy and spend a day or two at Wind Caves NP. While enjoying maybe the best sunset of the trip in the North Unit of Theodore my wife got the dreaded phone call from Wind Caves. Letting us know that once again their elevators had broken down and all tours would be canceled.
Due to the untimely and unfortunate closure of the caves we spent four days exploring, hiking, and photographing Theodore Roosevelt National Park. For both Cami and I this was our second time here (you can read more about the park during our first visit here), for my wife this was her first time.
We stayed (once again) in Dickinson ND, this is not the most convenient place to stay as it is nearly a 40 minute drive into the park. You can stay right outside the South Unit of the park; however, the lodging and food options are much better in Dickinson. Since we had enough time, we saw almost all the park. Did many of the hikes and trails. We saw all the wildlife, Buffalo, wild horses, prairie dogs, deer, and elk. Cat was particularly thrilled to see the Bison as there weren’t many when we visited the Badlands in 2019 and the herds in both the North and South Units had babies. It was also thrilling to get to see the wild horses running through the park.
The weather for our trip was a little bit all over the place. For the first two days we had temperatures in the mid 90s, then all the sudden the highs were in the 50s with lows in the 40s. It also became very windy for the last two days making the low temperatures feel even colder.
Though cold and stormy, the weather sure did make the landscape even more beautiful. On our third day in the park, we headed up to the North Unit (again) in the mid-afternoon. The sky was full of storm clouds, it was cold, and the wind was whipping. It’s an hour and a half drive from one end of the park to the other, and while we were approaching the North Unit it started to rain, and then pour. The rain made all the greens of the landscape “pop” even more, and the storm clouds above made for a spectacular view. While the rain was slowing down, I photographed the “cannonball rock” area. These might be some of the most unique photos from either of my times in the park. Cat and Cami wandered off up into the rocks and discovered some cacti and wildflowers to photograph.
While waiting for sunset one of our last nights in the southern unit of the park we spent some time in Medore, the town directly outside the entrance to Teddy. There we had some fantastic homemade ice cream and then went on to check out Teddy’s Bears. The teddy bear was named in honor of Theodore Roosevelt after he refused to shoot a treed black bear during a hunt as he viewed it as unsportsmanlike. A maker of stuffed animals in Brooklyn, NY saw the article on the event and, after receiving permission of Teddy himself for the use of his name, created the Teddy Bear we all know and cuddle today. Teddy’s Bears sells a wide variety of teddy bears but the two we purchased were both dressed in honor of Theodore Roosevelt’s time in the park area, the Rough Rider Teddy Bear and the Badlands Teddy Bear.
It was a great experience to see the park for the second time. I had already captured an amazing photo from there on our first trip, so I did not feel the usual pressure to create something new. I think that allowed me to see more of the park in a different light. While I’m still editing the photos, I’m hopeful that my time there will produce some truly unique and interesting photos.
We left the park and drove the eight hours back to Minneapolis as our flight was at 10am the next morning. We checked into our hotel in the University district which was an amazing place to stay. We dropped our stuff in the room and headed down the front desk to ask for restaurant recommendations. They suggested a few places nearby and we ended up at the Surly Brewing Co. This place was a fantastic find though what we weren’t aware of is that the food comes out as it is ready. So even though we thought we had ordered appetizers, the items we had ordered as sides for our main dishes came out first. It didn’t matter, the food was all amazing and the choices for beer were endless.
