Prairie Dog Day Afternoon

Now in Dickinson, North Dakota, Debbie wasn’t too happy with our room.  Here were the problems:

- A partial gallon of expired milk left in the refrigerator.  

- Several light bulbs that were out.  

- Many channels not working on the TV.  

- A dripping tub faucet.  

- A loud neighbor yelling at his daughter over the phone.  

- A missing shower curtain.  

After sharing these issues with the front desk on Tuesday morning, we were upgraded to a king suite.  We decided we would move in to our new room when we returned in the evening.

We stopped at a Subway to pick up our picnic lunch, knowing in advance that there wouldn't be many opportunities in the vicinity of the park.   In fact, it would be a long drive to even get to the park that day, over an hour.  (There's a lot of empty space in North Dakota!). We journeyed to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit first.

We took our entrance sign picture, looked around the visitor center, and stamped our passport.  Then we took the unit's scenic drive with its pull-offs and overlook areas.  There were some beautiful areas of banded badland formation.  We drove to the oxbow overlook and turned around for the drive back.

We then returned to I-94 and drove west toward the South Unit of the park.  But first we stopped at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center.  Unfortunately, the visitor center was undergoing some upgrades and was closed, but the scenery was open!  We enjoyed a FaceTime call with our Grandson David while there.  We found a picnic spot with a beautiful view of the painted canyon and enjoyed our subs.  

We took some more pictures and then headed for the South Unit near Medora.

We toured the unit's visitor center, stamped our passport (for the last time on this trip!), watched the park film, and checked out the exhibits, including a visit to the Maltese Cross Cabin.  Then we took the 2 hour scenic loop drive.  There were beautiful vistas with more sights of the Little Missouri River.  A highlight was the several prairie dog colonies with thousands of cute residents!

From afar, we could see the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library that is due to open on July 4.  Maybe something to come back for some day?  We stopped at a gift shop in Medora and bought our iconic souvenir of the trip - a buffalo statuette.  Seemed appropriate.  

We finished the day with dinner at Dairy Queen in Dickinson where we got light fare.  We then returned to our hotel, changed rooms and retired for the night.