Badlands

The Badlands of western North Dakota offer awe-inspiring views, but there’s a reason for the name: The Badlands are difficult to cross. And that’s putting it mildly.

One might wonder how such a beautiful place came to be known as the Badlands. That name came about before the marked hiking trails, onsite bathrooms, and water pumps. For white settlers and soldiers going west, the landscape was dry and difficult for travel. Looking back on records from General Alfred Sully’s expeditions, we can hear firsthand why they hated this land.

Snow is a common occurrence in North Dakota, but not in June! That’s what the Seventh Cavalry endured for two cold, wet days, stuck in camp in the Badlands, while marching west from Fort Abraham Lincoln. The expedition was headed into Montana Territory, where Plains Indians would later defeat Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his men at the Battle of Greasy Grass, or Little Bighorn.

Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park was established in 1947. It’s home to a variety of remarkable critters, and officials have long sought to restore the area’s historic wildlife, including species present when future President Theodore Roosevelt ranched and hunted there in the 1880s.

U.S. Highway 85 crosses the rugged Badlands south of Watford City in one of the most dramatic drives in North Dakota. The roadway runs for a few miles through the Little Missouri Valley in the area of Theodore Roosevelt National Park before climbing out of the Badlands.

Erosion is constant in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where the colorful but crumbly Badlands are on full display. A scenic loop rings the park’s South…

President Theodore Roosevelt’s time in what is now North Dakota is known for the hunting and ranching that helped soothe his soul and form his outlook on…

Adding up all his hunting and ranching visits, Theodore Roosevelt spent about a year in Dakota Territory. He visited Medora in 1883 to hunt bison, then…

Theodore Roosevelt’s initial trip to Western Dakota Territory’s badlands was a rollicking adventure of hunting, frustration, and awe for the young New…

Slope County, North Dakota has just two towns, but this sparse part of the prairie once had more. DeSart was one of them. Ora and Anna DeSart homesteaded…