Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The badlands of western North Dakota were carved by the Little Missouri out of soft sedimentary layers, leaving banded hills of grey, tan and rust, and in places seams of lignite coal have burned underground for years, baking the clay above them into a red rock called clinker. The park has three separate units: the busy South Unit with its scenic loop, the quieter and wilder North Unit an hour and a half away, and the remote Elkhorn Ranch site where the young Theodore Roosevelt ran cattle in the 1880s, an experience he later credited with shaping his conservation work. Bison graze beside the road, prairie dog towns chatter for hundreds of metres, and a herd of feral horses runs in the South Unit.

What you actually see

• The scenic loop drive - the South Unit road past bison, prairie dogs and overlooks.
• Painted Canyon - the layered badlands viewpoint right off the interstate.
• The wild horses - the free-roaming herd in the South Unit.
• The North Unit - quieter badlands, longhorn cattle and the Little Missouri.

When to go

May to October, with wildflowers in June and the best light and coolest walking in September; summer afternoons on the exposed badlands are hot. Winters are severe and roads close. Sunrise and sunset at Painted Canyon give the layered rock its colour.

Honest expectations

The three units are separated by long drives and many visitors see only the South Unit and Painted Canyon, which is a fraction of the park. Bison are genuinely dangerous and the road-side viewing lulls people into approaching them. There is little shade anywhere and the badlands clay turns to unwalkable grease after rain.

Nearby

Medora sits at the park gate; the Enchanted Highway sculptures are an hour east.