Thursday 27 September 2018
After breakfast we drive about 3 miles to the South Unit visitor center from our campsite. Here we watch the park film which describes the beauty of the North Dakota badlands and their importance in helping a young Theodore Roosevelt recover from the death of his wife (in childbirth) and of his mother on the same day. Roosevelt credited the badlands and his ranching days here with developing the characteristics he needed to become a leader of men and eventually president of the United States. This land also began to teach him the importance of conservation which eventually led to his becoming a supporter and creator of national parks.
After leaving the visitor center O and I drive the scenic loop through the South Unit of the park. We admire the multilayered eroded hills and their rainbow hues: red from clinker – the oxidized, hardened rock resulting from the heat of burning coal layers beneath, (the burning of the coal often ignited by lightning which starts grassland fires, which in turn ignite the coal layer); blue layers are bentonite, clay-like layers formed by volcanic ash from long ago eruptions; black layers are lignite, a low grade form of coal.
We walk the Ridgeline Nature Trail and then climb Buck Hill, the second highest point in the park. The prairie on top of this hill has never been plowed. It is an important locale for scientists studying the original prairie vegetation. From the summit I spy a distant herd of bison through my binoculars. We drive on to the Wind Canyon Loop. The walls of this canyon were carved by wind, not water. Beyond the canyon is a stunning view of the Little Missouri River. As O and I climb to the high point we look down on the park road to see a herd of about 40 bison moving past Vincent and other cars which are parked below or waiting patiently on the road for the herd to move out of the way. We loop back towards Cottonwood Campground passing a prairie dog village, but we cannot stop as construction blocks the pull-off. Back at our campsite, dinner preparations are briefly interrupted as I photograph a very large bison grazing just two campsites away.
