The most photogenic road trip in North Dakota finally reopens after 6 years

Park restores its signature drive

Theodore Roosevelt National Park just gave visitors back something they’ve waited more than six years for.

The South Unit Scenic Loop Road reopened on Nov. 25, 2025, after landslides and crumbling soil forced it shut in spring 2019.

Sen. John Hoeven and National Park Service Midwest Regional Director Bert Frost cut the ribbon at a ceremony marking the moment.

The full 21-mile loop through the Badlands is open again for the first time since the closure began.

Landslides shut the road in 2019

It started with storms. In spring 2019, unstable soil sent a 150-foot section of roadway sliding down a steep embankment.

Sinkholes popped up along a four-mile stretch after that.

Then, when crews broke ground on repairs in 2022, they found another two miles of unstable ground, pushing the total closure to six miles.

For years, visitors had to turn around partway through the loop, missing key stops like Scoria Point Overlook and Badlands Overlook.

The road goes back to the Depression era

This road has a long history. The Civilian Conservation Corps first built the segment during the Great Depression, years before the area became a national park. The full scenic loop wasn’t finished until 1968.

The problem has always been the terrain: sandstone bluffs that erode easily and shift with the weather. Building a road here was hard the first time, and keeping it intact has been a challenge ever since.

Congress funded the $51 million fix

The project cost about $51 million. Nearly all of it, about $50.8 million, came from the Great American Outdoors Act’s Legacy Restoration Fund.

Congress signed that law on Aug. 4, 2020, setting aside up to $1.9 billion a year for five years to tackle maintenance backlogs on public lands.

The Restore Our Parks Act, which focused on national park repairs, folded into the broader law. Another $450,000 came from other federal sources.

Crews rebuilt six miles of Badlands road

Construction took about two and a half years on the six-mile stretch, wrapping up in October 2025. Crews didn’t just patch the road.

They rebuilt it from scratch, stabilizing landslides, improving drainage, regrading slopes, and laying fresh asphalt. Engineers used stone riprap, wire suspension, and concrete to anchor the road on steep bluffs.

Hoeven compared the work to building a bridge, noting crews had to secure a road on the side of sandstone buttes.

Drivers get better pullouts and parking

The rebuilt road isn’t just a copy of the old one. Crews added improved and expanded pullouts so visitors can stop and take in the views more easily.

Parking areas along the route got upgrades, too. Emergency response access on the park’s east side is now better for both visitors and staff.

The road surface, drainage, and grading are all brand new, which should help the route hold up longer against the Badlands weather.

The park draws over 700,000 visitors yearly

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is North Dakota’s top tourist draw, and it’s not close. The park pulls in more than 700,000 visitors a year.

In 2024, about 733,000 people visited and spent an estimated $56 million in nearby communities. Around 100,000 vehicles drive the South Unit Road each year.

With the loop fully open again, those numbers could climb even higher heading into 2026.

Roosevelt fell in love here in 1883

Theodore Roosevelt first arrived in the North Dakota Badlands on Sept. 8, 1883, chasing a bison hunt. He fell so hard for the landscape that he bought two ranches in the area, the Maltese Cross and the Elkhorn.

Roosevelt later said he never would have become president without his time in North Dakota.

Today, the park protects about 70,000 acres across three sites in western North Dakota, preserving the land that shaped one of America’s most well-known leaders.

The loop winds through bison country

The 21-mile drive takes visitors through some of the most dramatic scenery in the Great Plains. Striped bluffs, deep erosion formations, and petrified tree stumps line the route.

Bison, wild horses, prairie dogs, and elk roam the area.

Key viewpoints include Scoria Point Overlook, where red rock and rolling hills stretch to the horizon, and Badlands Overlook. It’s the same rugged terrain Roosevelt explored more than 140 years ago.

Presidential library opens on July 4, 2026

The timing couldn’t be better. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library plans to hold its grand opening on July 4, 2026, right on America’s 250th birthday.

The library sits in Medora, North Dakota, just minutes from the park.

The roughly 96,000-square-foot building, designed by the firm Snohetta, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of new visitors to the area.

With the road now open, the park will be fully ready when they arrive.

The library uses AI and holograms

This won’t be a dusty archive. The library plans to feature immersive exhibitions using AI, holograms, and interactive storytelling to bring Roosevelt’s life into focus.

Narrative galleries will walk visitors through eight chapters of his life in order.

The building itself features a walkable green roof with native plants, rammed earth walls, and mass timber construction.

Designers built it to be carbon-neutral, a nod to Roosevelt’s legacy as America’s conservation president.

North Dakota prepares for a visitor surge

The reopened road and the upcoming library together set western North Dakota up for a big jump in tourism. North Dakota Tourism is working with the library to create themed road trips and conservation-focused programs.

The combination gives visitors something rare: a chance to see the actual landscape that shaped one of America’s most influential presidents, then walk into a world-class museum about his life just minutes away.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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