Multi-colored layers of sandstone, clay and shale infused with seams of black coal— all easily eroded rocks— are what give Theodore Roosevelt National Park its unique, otherworldly look. They put the Bad in badlands in the sense of teen slang, like really great, like wow!TRNP is located in North Dakota close to the border of Montana. Canada is to the north.The park is divided into a north and south section. Peggy and I spend the majority of our time in the north section, which has far fewer visitors and, in my opinion, is more scenic. Visitors will find numerous multi-colored hills, like this…And this— an example of earth slump where a whole portion of one of the cliffs came sliding down intact. Note the coal seam. Lightning can actually set these seams on fire. They can burn for years.A close up. Coal was formed some 300 million years in large swamps where dead plant materials settled to the bottom and were eventually compressed into rock. Petrified wood from redwoods, cypress and cedar can also be found in the park.The strangest rocks, however, are these cannon ball shaped concretions that are formed when minerals settle out of water in sandstone and shale, around a pebble or fossil in layers.How much more unworldly can you get than this scene where the mud-like rock seemingly melts.And appears to have flowed out of holes and cracks.In addition to its cannonball look, the concretions also took other forms.Another example of a concretion.There seems to be no end to erosion carved features at TRNP. BTW, I think this is the way to Rock Hill, not the hill. A park information sign informed us that the grass on Rock Hill has never been plowed, making it one of the rare examples of pure native grass found in North America. The eroded hill here had a beautiful setting.Capstones, made up of harder rocks, help create the layered look.I felt that this example had a jumbled mass of erosion that had a dark, post-apocalyptic feel to it…So I added a noir filter.On a brighter note, we loved this massive hill with its trees on top.A side view. Like a massive vessel rising out of the earth.A distant view of the Little Missouri River that flows through TRNP. Note the small blip on top of the ridge.It’s the hill on top. I promised buffalo, right? There are lots of them in TRNP. But I promised more: Buffalo wallowing.That’s what this big fellow is about to do.Wallowing is all about stirring up dust. Buffalo do it to to discourage biting flies and shed fur. The males also do it during mating season to leave behind a scent and demonstrate what big, strong fellas they are. It’s important to get dust all over their bodies.And this involves…Getting down and dirty!
That’s a wrap on Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but even more it’s a wrap on our national park series. Peggy and I hope you’ve enjoyed it. In addition to the six I have featured here, there were the four others I included in our trip up the coast this spring and Everglades National Park we visited in February for a total of 11 in 2022.
But (isn’t there always a but), Peggy and I are going to bring you one more national park as part of our next series: Great Rivers. We will return to the Grand Canyon with a twist: Instead of looking down, we will be looking up— floating down the Colorado River on a 20 day private trip by raft through the park. I’ve blogged about the trip before, so I know several of you are familiar with it. This will be different, however, a photo essay stretched out over 6 posts with lots of new photos that Peggy and I haven’t included before.
First, however, Peggy and I are taking a vacation. (Do I hear a snort in the background. Isn’t that what you always do?) Actually, it will be a vacation from blogging as we float down the Danube River. Think of it as a vacation from a vocation, to the degree blogging is a vocation/work. I’m sure fellow bloggers will agree, it certainly feels like it at times. 😳We will be missing from the blogosphere for five weeks: This week in preparation for the trip, three weeks in Europe, and one week in recovery. I’ll check in from time to time to respond to comments. Beyond that, we will see you in mid-October!
Peggy and I hold on tight while Steve Van Dore rows us through rapids on the Colorado River. Is Peggy praying? Grin. (Photo by our friend Don Green)
Thanks, Steve. We will! Where are you and Carol hanging out now?! BTW. I never finished my posts for the Nile, having been pulled off into another adventure. I’ll wrap them up on my Great River series after I write about our raft trip down the Colorado and the Danube. I’m pretty sure that you and Carol will be showing up in my blog again! –Curt
Oooh, thanks for sharing these! I’ve been to this park but just very briefly and just what we could see from the visitor center. Clearly a return visit is in order to actually see things this time. Have fun on your vacation; I look forward to reading about it on the blog at some future date 😊
Thanks, Diana. We had been to TR NP ourselves before and remembered the buffalo but forgotten just how beautiful and interesting the park was. The Danube will be coming right after I post again on our raft trip through the Grand Canyon. 😁
wow, great wrap up Curt and Peggy. It’s surreal how your pics capture every nook and cranny. That is some buffalo wallowing in the dirt I’ll say! You 2 never cease to amaze “strolling” down the rapids!
I’ll be waiting for your next adventure.❣️
Thanks, Cindy. Every nook and cranny had something to admire! The buffalo was enjoying himself. No question about that. Right now, I’m waiting for it too. 😁
I once found concretions on a beach on New Zealand’s South Island, and could only marvel, wondering how I the heck they could be formed.
Another thought I had on the buffalo was thinking it looked like he was enjoying his wallow in much the same way we enjoy a good back scratch! Thanks!
First off – floating down the Danube sounds so wonderful! But the pictures you posted this time are so strange and wonderful! Rocks really have character! And the buffalo is quite a magnificent creature. When my son was little, he wallowed a lot in our back yard and would come in with raccoon eyes!
Have a wonderful “vacation” and I look forward to another adventure. The fall has certainly come to Olympia and it is so nice. New buildings on the Capitol campus and a new house being built in this neighborhood are really changing the landscape but this neighborhood is always a delight. Love to you and Peggy!
“and would come in with raccoon eyes!” Not to mention, dirty clothes. Grin. Rocks are endlessly fascinating to us, Wendy, as you may have noted in our blogs.
Hard to ask for much more than a delightful neighborhood as a choice for home, Wendy. It’s beginning to behave like fall here as well, which is good, given it’s five days away.
Thanks. –Curt
Don’t you just love rocks?! So many varieties in the TRNP. What a geological history. I love the colored bands and the cannonballs (so odd looking!). And the wallowing buffalo. Enjoy your vacation from your vacation, Curt. Sounds like another adventure to me. Happy Travels to you both.
It’s really incredible, D, and once again, the geology is up there close and visible to enjoy! And the buffalo was just as enjoyable. I imagined it saying, “Damn, that feels good!” Just like we do when we get out back scratched. Thanks, and an adventure it will be! –Curt
I don’t know about others, but I definitely snorted.
Curt, I don’t even have enough words to describe this magnificent post! The colours are blowing my mind, but also those formations – so varied and so numerous. Wow and wow.
Enjoy your much deserved break. And yes, we all understand the amount of work you do to blog. I am so far behind it’s hard to even comprehend. But winter is coming, and that’s a good time to get more done at my computer. I look forward to visiting with you two again in October. Hugs. ❤
Thanks, Crystal. We’ve had fun with all of our national park posts this year. The variety, beauty, and fascinating things there are to learn about nature, history, and geology just go on and on.
Snorting in good.
There is no doubt about it: Putting together blogs rich in photography with appropriate commentary is had work. Peggy gets to hear me whine about it at least once a week. Grin. There is also no doubt, however, it is even more enjoyable and rewarding than the work involved. 😁 Hugs back to you, my friend.
I had no idea there was anything like this in North Dakota. I was only through there once, back in 1977, and all I remember was flat, endless prairie and wheat fields. These badlands are weird and wonderful, sorry I missed them.
Enjoy your “vacation.” Back in my working days, when I came back from a vacation I’d often say I needed a vacation to recover from having a vacation; does this ring a bell?
And sunflowers, I might add. If you ever get back that way, Dave, be sure to check out the north section of the park.
Yeah, I hear that. We always started out being exhausted when we left because of everything we had to do in advance and vacations were usually only a week long. Just about the time we relaxed, it was time to start worrying about everything that was waiting for us when we got back!
I think this is my fave NP so far. Those layers! And wallowing bison bonus! All in all an excellent post. Have a great time in Europe. I’m not jealous. Nope. Not me. 😁
Alison
It’s much more attractive than its lack of public attention suggests. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. 🙄 We are lucky that we can still travel as much as we do, Allison. We both know and appreciate the fact. So we are getting out and about as much as we can get away with. I do remember being a wee bit jealous about some of the marvelous adventures you and Don have had, 😄 –Curt
Wandering through Time and Place 
Enjoy your float down the Danube. I love multi-coloured rocks.
We will, of course. I suspect that Australia has its share of multi-colored rocks. Grin.
Thanks again for the great photos and notes. Enjoy your vacation!!
Thanks, Steve. We will! Where are you and Carol hanging out now?! BTW. I never finished my posts for the Nile, having been pulled off into another adventure. I’ll wrap them up on my Great River series after I write about our raft trip down the Colorado and the Danube. I’m pretty sure that you and Carol will be showing up in my blog again! –Curt
Oooh, thanks for sharing these! I’ve been to this park but just very briefly and just what we could see from the visitor center. Clearly a return visit is in order to actually see things this time. Have fun on your vacation; I look forward to reading about it on the blog at some future date 😊
Thanks, Diana. We had been to TR NP ourselves before and remembered the buffalo but forgotten just how beautiful and interesting the park was. The Danube will be coming right after I post again on our raft trip through the Grand Canyon. 😁
wow, great wrap up Curt and Peggy. It’s surreal how your pics capture every nook and cranny. That is some buffalo wallowing in the dirt I’ll say! You 2 never cease to amaze “strolling” down the rapids!
I’ll be waiting for your next adventure.❣️
Thanks, Cindy. Every nook and cranny had something to admire! The buffalo was enjoying himself. No question about that. Right now, I’m waiting for it too. 😁
You’re so very welcome and yes it did!!! Gosh he really was.. Enjoy your “down time” xo 🫶🏽
“Enjoy your “down time”” Already am, my friend.
The round stones do look like they belong to another planet. The buffalo is hilarious! Enjoy your next trip!
I once found concretions on a beach on New Zealand’s South Island, and could only marvel, wondering how I the heck they could be formed.
Another thought I had on the buffalo was thinking it looked like he was enjoying his wallow in much the same way we enjoy a good back scratch! Thanks!
First off – floating down the Danube sounds so wonderful! But the pictures you posted this time are so strange and wonderful! Rocks really have character! And the buffalo is quite a magnificent creature. When my son was little, he wallowed a lot in our back yard and would come in with raccoon eyes!
Have a wonderful “vacation” and I look forward to another adventure. The fall has certainly come to Olympia and it is so nice. New buildings on the Capitol campus and a new house being built in this neighborhood are really changing the landscape but this neighborhood is always a delight. Love to you and Peggy!
“and would come in with raccoon eyes!” Not to mention, dirty clothes. Grin. Rocks are endlessly fascinating to us, Wendy, as you may have noted in our blogs.
Hard to ask for much more than a delightful neighborhood as a choice for home, Wendy. It’s beginning to behave like fall here as well, which is good, given it’s five days away.
Thanks. –Curt
I keep staring at the mountains and the lines of history that streak across them!
Yep, a few million years, at the least, for each streak, G. LOL
Beautiful.
Thanks, Cindy.
Don’t you just love rocks?! So many varieties in the TRNP. What a geological history. I love the colored bands and the cannonballs (so odd looking!). And the wallowing buffalo. Enjoy your vacation from your vacation, Curt. Sounds like another adventure to me. Happy Travels to you both.
It’s really incredible, D, and once again, the geology is up there close and visible to enjoy! And the buffalo was just as enjoyable. I imagined it saying, “Damn, that feels good!” Just like we do when we get out back scratched. Thanks, and an adventure it will be! –Curt
🙂
I don’t know about others, but I definitely snorted.
Curt, I don’t even have enough words to describe this magnificent post! The colours are blowing my mind, but also those formations – so varied and so numerous. Wow and wow.
Enjoy your much deserved break. And yes, we all understand the amount of work you do to blog. I am so far behind it’s hard to even comprehend. But winter is coming, and that’s a good time to get more done at my computer. I look forward to visiting with you two again in October. Hugs. ❤
Thanks, Crystal. We’ve had fun with all of our national park posts this year. The variety, beauty, and fascinating things there are to learn about nature, history, and geology just go on and on.
Snorting in good.
There is no doubt about it: Putting together blogs rich in photography with appropriate commentary is had work. Peggy gets to hear me whine about it at least once a week. Grin. There is also no doubt, however, it is even more enjoyable and rewarding than the work involved. 😁 Hugs back to you, my friend.
I had no idea there was anything like this in North Dakota. I was only through there once, back in 1977, and all I remember was flat, endless prairie and wheat fields. These badlands are weird and wonderful, sorry I missed them.
Enjoy your “vacation.” Back in my working days, when I came back from a vacation I’d often say I needed a vacation to recover from having a vacation; does this ring a bell?
And sunflowers, I might add. If you ever get back that way, Dave, be sure to check out the north section of the park.
Yeah, I hear that. We always started out being exhausted when we left because of everything we had to do in advance and vacations were usually only a week long. Just about the time we relaxed, it was time to start worrying about everything that was waiting for us when we got back!
I think this is my fave NP so far. Those layers! And wallowing bison bonus! All in all an excellent post. Have a great time in Europe. I’m not jealous. Nope. Not me. 😁
Alison
It’s much more attractive than its lack of public attention suggests. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. 🙄 We are lucky that we can still travel as much as we do, Allison. We both know and appreciate the fact. So we are getting out and about as much as we can get away with. I do remember being a wee bit jealous about some of the marvelous adventures you and Don have had, 😄 –Curt
😂 adventures? What adventures? We haven’t had any adventures 😂
Just a few… Grin. Vast understatement.