A Kid Recap of Teddy Roosevelt National Park

 Hello and welcome to the first snowy Saturday of the 2023-24 winter season. Today is October 28th.

Before we accept the snow that fell yesterday, signaling the inevitable winter descending upon us, let's take one last lingering look at blue skies and bright, sunny days over the warm brown buttes and prairies of western North Dakota we experienced last weekend at Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Unit) through the eyes of our kids.

Little Mo Nature Trail (1.1 mi) - This is a 1.1-mile trail that was very cool because we could see all the cool rocks. We learned about bentonite and lignite. It was a good beginner trail because it was nice, short, and easy for the next trail which we will talk about later. Some of our favorite things on this trail were seeing a rabbit, climbing up tiny hills, hiking along the Little Missouri River (aka "the Misery River"), learning how the river is formed, seeing prickly pear cactuses, and basically just learning what the plants and different rock formations are called.

Battleship Butte - Then we visited the "cannonballs" concretions over at Battleship Butte not far from our campground. My brothers got stuck up on top of the Battleship Butte. The youngest one was freaking out that he was going to die. "Hey! Don't make fun of me. One wrong move and I would have died!" Dad helped my younger brother get down, while my older brother took a long time just thinking about it. "Hmmmm....." He said it was actually pretty narrow at the top and he couldn't find an alternate (safer) way down. So, in the end, he ended up going down the same way my little brother did. My mom said a lot of Hail Marys.

Buckhorn Trail (11.4 mi) - On Friday we hiked a really long trail - 11.4 miles! We went into "Jumanji" mode when we encountered a herd of bison on the trail. We went toward the herd. One bison went straight toward the middle of the path and then we backed away. Then we had a "gummy stop." (Our dad gives us gummy worms as a reward along the trail to keep us motivated.) We thought of ways of how to get past. Our dad said we should go toward the river, but that's where the bison were going. Mom was like, "Let's go to higher ground," and go off the trail. So that's what we did. It worked out well. We went carefully around the bison - just carefully - not to make them ram us.

Then we entered "Prairie Dog Town."  It was a town of prairie dogs that was basically like a city but it was uptown at that time. The prairie dogs were cute when they ran and stood up and went into their holes. One was even brave enough to poke its head out by the trail!

We saw the "Misery" (Missouri) River and saw a bison take a poop! We crossed little creeks. Sometimes we had to figure out how to cross them when it was too wet or muddy where the trail was. We had to hike up and through what we called "The Forest of Fear" and then when we got to the top we saw gorgeous views of the land. We lunched on the prairie. There were tons of rolling hills and grass and we could see all the way to the North Unit Visitor Center down by the road.

This was a really long trail so we were really proud of ourselves when we finished.

South Achenbach Trail (about 9 mi) - This trail started at the Oxbow Overlook which is at the end of the scenic drive that goes through the North Unit of the park. First, we went to Sperati Point which was another overlook. Then we went down into the canyon. We hiked all the way down until we came to the banks of the Little Missouri River. Then we had a gummy stop and we felt if the water was cold. We decided it was too cold to cross and continue on the trail, so we went east through "The Wailing Willows of Pain." No joke. There's a reason why we called it that and that's because it whacked us - especially the Third grader - in the face. When we were two-thirds into the humongous biome, we stopped and lunched and it was a good time to refuel because that first part along the river was really hard.

For lunch, we had meat, bread, oranges, apples, pistachios, and gummy worms.

After lunch, we felt much better and started again. When we got to the sagebrush, we crossed that. It was pretty easy (especially after just getting through the Wailing Willows of Pain). We had to go through some thorns then we followed the shoreline of the river until we came to two bright yellow birch trees that stuck out like sore thumbs compared to the other leafless trees.

Then we had to go through this little wiggly gap (north) to find the other trail (North Achenbach) back to the Oxbow Overlook. It was surprisingly easy to find. Dad used GPS. Then we found the next sloupek (post) that showed us where to go. We kept hiking, following each sloupek until we really had to climb the steep mountain to get to the top. It was a little difficult because there was a 50% chance of rolling back down the mountain. But we got up, went to the Overlook and got to the parking lot. We feasted on La Croix (sparkling water), gummy worms, and chocolate, saying about every car that came and then left that they were wimps because they came to do the hike and then they just left not doing the hike.

Caprock Coulee Nature Trail (1.5 mi) - After the hike we finished at the overlook, we complained that we had to do another hike, even though it was easy like the Little Mo. But our parents wanted us to do one more hike because we had to drive home the next morning. The Caprock Coulee Nature Trail was actually really easy, short, and interesting. We saw cap rocks, and our mom pointed out a bison on the very top of a butte. It was really pretty. By this time, we were really good hikers and my mom called us "mountain goats" because we were so fast.

After all, the Theodore Roosevelt National Park was really fun. We had a lot of adventures seeing bison, calves, prairie dogs, deer, rabbits, and a mouse in the bathroom. Mom went, "WAAAAAGHHHH!" when she saw it. She screamed her lungs out. And we heard wolves howling in the night. When my mom asked, "What did the wolves say?", we said, "A-woo."

And I became a Junior Ranger!