Theodore Roosevelt fell in love with these North Dakota badlands. Visit once, and you will too.

There’s a reason the pros noticed

Theodore Roosevelt National Park covers 70,446 acres of badlands in western North Dakota, split across three separate units with the Little Missouri River running through all of them.

Both National Geographic and Lonely Planet put it on their 2026 destination lists. The park carries the distinction of being the only national park in the country named after a single person.

Crowds stay thin here, even in peak season.

And the landscape that earned all that attention looks nothing like what you’d expect from North Dakota.

A young president’s grief carved this park into history

In 1883, a young Theodore Roosevelt left New York and traveled to the Dakota Territory to hunt bison. A year later, his wife and mother died on the same day in February 1884, and he came back to grieve.

He became a rancher. The badlands changed how he saw wild land, and when he reached the White House, he protected roughly 230 million acres of public land.

The area became a national memorial park in 1947 and earned full national park status in 1978.

Drive the 36-mile loop through bison country

The South Unit sits right off Interstate 94 near the town of Medora, and a 36-mile scenic loop road takes you through it. You’ll pass colorful rock layers, open prairie and river views that change with every curve.

Bison, feral horses and prairie dogs show up right along the road.

The loop connects to several trailheads and overlooks, so you can pull over and hike whenever you want. Near the visitor center, Roosevelt’s Maltese Cross Cabin from the winter of 1883 to 1884 is open for a walk-through.

Watch the sunset from Wind Canyon’s sculpted sandstone

Wind Canyon Trail runs a quarter mile and ends at one of the most photographed overlooks in the park. Wind-sculpted sandstone frames the view of the Little Missouri River below, and sunset turns the whole thing gold.

Over at Painted Canyon, you get your first look at the badlands right from Interstate 94. The Painted Canyon Nature Trail drops 0.9 miles down into the canyon on a loop.

Both spots work for just about any fitness level, so nobody has to sit these out.

Walk among 60-million-year-old stone trees

The South Unit holds one of the largest petrified wood deposits in the country.

A roughly 10-mile loop trail winds through ancient mineralized stumps and logs that date back about 60 million years. Feral horses and bison cross the open prairie along the route, so keep your eyes up.

Shade is scarce out here, and you’ll want extra water.

The petrified stumps sit inside nearly 30,000 acres of congressionally designated wilderness, and the silence out there is complete.

Bison graze 10 feet from your car window

Bison herds roam both the North and South Units, and they walk right up to the road. The South Unit also has feral horses, descendants of ranch horses that escaped decades ago.

Prairie dog towns pop up across the grasslands, with the animals standing on their mounds and calling back and forth. Elk, bighorn sheep, mule deer, pronghorn and coyotes all live here too.

Birders can look for over 186 species, including golden eagles and wild turkeys.

The North Unit is quieter and twice as rugged

About an hour north of the South Unit on U.S. Highway 85, the North Unit pulls in far fewer people.

A 14-mile scenic drive follows the Little Missouri River and climbs to canyon overlooks where the land drops away on both sides.

Oxbow Overlook sits at the end of the road, and the view stretches across layered badlands as far as you can see. Bighorn sheep and longhorn cattle graze along the drive.

If you want the park mostly to yourself, this is where you go.

Stone spheres the size of cars line the road

The North Unit has cannonball concretions, large round rock formations that look like they were placed there on purpose.

Mineral-rich water deposited minerals around a core deep inside the sediment over millions of years. As the softer rock eroded away, the hard spheres stayed put.

Some of them are as big as a small car.

You can see them from an accessible sidewalk pullout along the North Unit Scenic Drive, so you don’t even have to leave the pavement to get a good look.

Pick from 100 miles of trails or one 144-mile beast

The park has roughly 100 miles of hiking trails across the two main units.

Easy picks include the Wind Canyon Trail, the Ridgeline Nature Trail and the Coal Vein Trail, a 0.8-mile loop past ground scorched by an underground coal fire that burned from 1951 to 1977.

The Caprock Coulee Trail in the North Unit delivers river views and wildlife around every bend. Buck Hill gives you a short walk to a 2,855-foot summit.

And the 144-mile Maah Daah Hey Trail connects all three park units for hikers and mountain bikers.

Only stone foundations mark Roosevelt’s private ranch

The Elkhorn Ranch Unit sits between the North and South Units, about 35 miles up unpaved roads. Roosevelt built this ranch in 1884 after losing his wife and mother.

Today, only the stone foundation markers remain, set along a quiet bend of the Little Missouri River. You’ll need a high-clearance vehicle to get there, and wet weather can make the road tricky.

The draw here isn’t a building or a monument. It’s standing in the same spot where Roosevelt came to put his life back together.

A new presidential library opens on the Fourth of July

A presidential library is set to open on July 4, 2026, on 93 acres atop a butte near Medora. The architectural firm Snohetta designed the building with a walkable roof covered in native plants.

Inside, immersive exhibits will cover Roosevelt’s life, leadership and conservation legacy. A 1.3-mile trail connects the library straight to the national park.

The opening is expected to draw thousands of people to Medora during Independence Day week, so plan ahead if you’re going then.

The night sky here has zero competition

The park’s remote location means almost no light pollution, and the wide-open badlands give you an unblocked view of the sky in every direction.

Each September, the Theodore Roosevelt Nature and History Association hosts the Dakota Nights Astronomy Festival. You can camp under all of it at primitive campgrounds in both the North and South Units.

Roosevelt once called the winter badlands “an abode of iron desolation.”

After dark, when the stars come out over that same ground, it feels like a completely different place.

Explore Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota

You can reach the South Unit entrance near Medora right off Interstate 94. The North Unit entrance is about an hour north near Watford City on U.S. Highway 85.

Entrance runs $30 per vehicle and covers seven days, and America the Beautiful passes work here too. The park stays open 24 hours a day, year-round, though snow can close some roads in winter.

Campgrounds are primitive with no hookups or showers. If you want to camp in the backcountry, pick up a free permit at the visitor center.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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