Theodore Roosevelt
Colorful North Dakota badlands where bison and wild horses roam and a young TR ranched
- Hours
- Open 24 hours, all year
- Entry
- $30 per car
- Reservations
- Not required
- Size
- 70,446 acres
Theodore Roosevelt Weather Now
Loading the forecast for Theodore Roosevelt…
Theodore Roosevelt National Park protects about 70,000 acres of North Dakota badlands in three separate units along the Little Missouri River. The layered buttes are made of soft sandstone, siltstone and clay, striped with dark lignite coal and red clinker called scoria, which forms when coal seams burn underground. A young Theodore Roosevelt came here in 1883 to hunt bison and stayed to ranch, and he later said his time in the Dakota badlands shaped his ideas about conservation. The area became a national memorial park in 1947 and a full national park in 1978.
The busy South Unit sits right next to the Old West town of Medora, which in July 2026 also became home to the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. The quieter North Unit is about 70 miles north near Watford City, and the remote Elkhorn Ranch Unit, Roosevelt's home ranch site, sits between the two at the end of gravel roads. The park is one of the few places in the country where you can see free-roaming wild horses, and bison often stop traffic on the loop road. Prairie dog towns line the drives, so expect to stop often.
The park and surrounding area
- Park boundary
- Other parks
- Major highway
- Road
- Rivers and lakes
- Town
Plan your trip
- Best time to go
- Late May through September brings open facilities and green prairie, and September adds fall color in the river bottoms, bugling elk and fewer crowds.
- How long to stay
- Two days lets you drive the South Unit loop and make the trip to the North Unit; add a half day for Elkhorn Ranch.
- Getting there
- Dickinson (DIK) is about 40 minutes from Medora and Bismarck (BIS) about 2 hours; Williston (XWA) is about an hour from the North Unit, and Billings (BIL) is about 4 hours from Medora.
- Wildlife
- Look for bison, wild horses, prairie dogs, elk, pronghorn, mule and white-tailed deer, longhorn steers in the North Unit, golden eagles and wild turkeys.
Plan and book
Some links below are affiliate links. If you book through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. How this works
Where to stay
- Hotels in Medora (opens in a new tab)North Dakota
- Hotels in Dickinson (opens in a new tab)North Dakota
- Hotels in Watford City (opens in a new tab)North Dakota
- No lodging inside the park. The towns above are the closest bases.
Tours and activities
- Guided tours on Viator (opens in a new tab)Day trips, wildlife, photography
- Tours on GetYourGuide (opens in a new tab)Compare options and reviews
- Campsites on Recreation.gov (opens in a new tab)Official federal booking site
What to pack for Theodore Roosevelt
- BinocularsBison, wild horses and pronghorn are often best watched from a safe distance.
- Hiking boots with good gripBadlands clay turns slick and sticky after rain.
- Wide-brim sun hatThere is very little shade on the trails and summer heat can top 90 degrees.
- Large water bottleWater is scarce on trails and the dry air dehydrates you fast.
- Windproof jacketPrairie wind is constant and spring and fall evenings turn cold quickly.
A first day, start to finish
- Maltese Cross Cabin and South Unit Visitor Center
- Painted Canyon Overlook
- Prairie dog towns and bison along the Scenic Loop Drive
- Lunch in Medora
- Sunset hike at Wind Canyon
Don't miss
- South Unit Scenic Loop DriveA 36-mile paved loop from Medora past prairie dog towns, bison herds and overlooks, fully reopened in late 2025 after a landslide-damaged section was closed for six years.
- Painted Canyon OverlookA roadside viewpoint just off I-94, about 7 miles east of Medora, looking over a wide canyon of striped clay, coal seams and red scoria.
- Wind Canyon TrailA short 0.4-mile loop along the Scenic Loop Drive that climbs to a bluff above a sweeping bend of the Little Missouri River, a top sunset spot.
- Maltese Cross CabinTheodore Roosevelt's restored 1880s ranch cabin, moved to sit behind the South Unit Visitor Center in Medora.
- North Unit Scenic DriveA 14-mile road from the North Unit Visitor Center to Oxbow Overlook, with steeper, greener badlands, longhorn steers and the Caprock Coulee trail along the way.
Know before you go
Do
- Bring a card, since the park went fully cashless on May 1, 2026.
- Reserve your campsite on Recreation.gov ahead of time, because walk-up sites are gone.
- Reset your watch between units, since the North Unit runs an hour ahead of the South Unit.
Don't
- Walk up to bison or wild horses; stay at least 25 yards away, and farther from bison in rut.
- Try the road to Elkhorn Ranch after rain without a high-clearance vehicle.
- Count on cell service in the North Unit or at Elkhorn Ranch; download maps first.
The park is open 24 hours a day, year-round, but its three units keep different clocks: the South Unit at Medora runs on Mountain time and the North Unit on Central time. The South Unit Visitor Center in Medora is open year-round, while Painted Canyon Visitor Center off I-94 is seasonal and the North Unit Visitor Center keeps reduced off-season hours. Parts of the South Unit Scenic Loop Drive and the North Unit Scenic Drive can close in winter for snow and ice.
Drive the Scenic Loop counterclockwise in the last hour of daylight and end at Wind Canyon, where the sun sets over the Little Missouri River.Trekker's tip