2020 North Dakota - part 27: Theodore Roosevelt National Park-Badlands' prairie dogs, bison, and wild horses - Travel With Us

As we drive through the park today, we’ll be on the lookout for prairie dogs, bison, and wild horses. Wonder what else the park has for us. Bet we’ll see and learn a lot more as we go along!

entrance to the park and today’s drive
(We’ll see info on the original entrance later in this post.)

prairie dogs

Once common on the Great Plains, prairie dogs are now almost gone from their historic home. Hunting, trapping, poisoning, disease, and habitat destruction have contribute to their decline.

Males lifespan is up to 5 years and females up to 8 years, while most survive less than 1 year. Females 2 years and older produce a litter a year of 1 to 6 pups each spring.

Since the prairie dogs are protected here in the park, colonies live in various places. They may look cuddly and have curious antics, but these wild animals will scratch, bite, and carry disease. We were encouraged to stay away, and we did. Here are pictures of their homes and their towns.

A few prairie dogs had their homes along the side of the road. Guess they’re used to the noise.

Entrances to their homes are built-up mounds of dirt with holes burrowed in them.

Entrances to their homes are all over this area, and this is just one of the “towns” that we saw.

These prairie dogs are talking to each other; we just hear noise.

They stand upright about 12 inches. They have keen sight, hearing, and sense of smell, keeping them safe from predators as they stand at attention, look around, and pause to listen.

Their bark-like call earned them their names. The “bark” is just one of many calls they make to each other.

Prairie dogs are plant eaters, getting all their nutrients and water from what’s growing in their towns. They weigh around 1.5 pounds.

The area around the prairie dog town and the prairie beyond are quite different. The plants around the towns are shorter around the burrow mounds.

The prairie dog towns provide a habitat that supports other types of animals. They are good neighbors.

Some of what lives around the prairie dogs are killdeer, tiger salamander, and burrowing owl.

*Killdeer* (top right) lay their eggs on bare ground or in very short vegetation, making the prairie dog towns perfect for them.
*Tiger salamanders* (left) stay in the burrows during the hot, dry days, but come out at night and during rain showers to eat worms and insects.
*Burrowing owls* (bottom right) lay their eggs and raise their young in abandoned prairie dog burrows. Their diet includes insects and mice.

Little Missouri River

The Little Mo flows lazily north along the valley floor in front of us.

In such an area where water is scarce, the river sustains thousands of animals each day. Trees and shrubs line its banks to provide food and shelter for a variety of wildlife.

Songbirds nest and bats roost in the trees. Golden eagles build nests on steep cliffsides along the river’s edge. Animals include white-tailed deer, pelicans, and shorebirds.

Other animals that depend on the river’s water are wild turkeys, elk, spotted towhees, and fox squirrels. During the winter, porcupines enjoy the inner bark of cottonwood trees and chokeberry bushes that are common in the river valley.

The river runs along the cliffs in the rear of the picture on the other side of the highway.

beef corrals in bottom areas

Remember when we talked about the era of the open range cattle industry in the late 1800s?

Ranchers worked together to round up their free-ranging cattle in the spring and fall. The cattle were then driven to a wide river bottom where they could be worked and sorted.

These staging areas were called “beef corral bottom.” In 1893, a large corral was constructed for the Marquis de Mores’ operation. It held cattle destined for the company’s slaughterhouse in Medora.

Since this land has already been disturbed by the cattle, it makes a perfect location for prairie dogs to establish their towns. They prefer the low growing vegetation.

The flat area on the left at the base of the hills is the location of one of the beef corrals that’s along the river.

Can you imagine how hard it would be for the cowboys to ride through the Badlands, without helicopters or drones, to find all the cattle?

Boicourt overlook

The name probably comes from a spring with that name that’s close by. That name probably came from Albert E. Boicourt (1878-1952) who lived in the SW area of North Dakota (where we are). I couldn’t find any information online about why his name would be used for the springs and the overlook.

From here, the Little Missouri Badlands seems to go on forever. At about 100 miles long and averaging 15 miles wide, they are North Dakota’s most noticeable landform.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park protects only a small part of this vast landscape. The buttes on the horizon are miles away, far outside the park boundary.

This picture shows where we’re standing as we look west at the various buttes.

And here’s the view we saw. Pictures just don’t give it the credit it deserves. It’s so quiet out here (except for the cars passing by and the prairie dogs barking).

Buck Hill prairie

One of the hills along our drive is Buck Hill and the prairie land around it.

This sign shows all of the wildflowers that grow here.

The codes underneath the flowers indicate the value of the wild flower: medicinal or eatable for humans; birds; small mammals like mice and rabbits; and grazers like deer, pronghorns, and elk.

*scarlet globemallow:* when crushed into a paste, the leaves can heal cuts and burns
*purple cornflower:* roots of the plant can relieve toothaches
*plains pricklypear:* fruit is packed with vitamin C; it makes a nutritious snack and can be made into jelly

*Indian breadroot:* roots were a staple for the Plains Indian diet
*prairie wild rose:* waxy fruits called rose hips are rich in vitamins and can be an emergency food source
*sunflower:* local agricultural tribes cultivated them for the nutritious seeds.

prairie land over the years

As we’ve learned on this trip, years ago this land was underwater and supported marine life. Then the great glaciers came from the north and froze all that water and underwater life. When the glaciers receded, the land was filled with nutrients.

Then the bison found this land to roam, millions of them flattening the prairie grasses on this land that they found to their liking. Their waste kept being packed down into the land as the herds kept coming. Where they didn’t roam, plants were able to grow tall, depending on how close the grasses were to a water source.

This prairie land is similar to other lands like it over the world. Let’s see what we can learn.

The prairie around Buck Hill has never been plowed, making it a place where we can see what this area was like before the farmers came.

Since the debate over the use or preservation of this land can be so emotional, I wanted to take a closer look at this sign.

More than 70% of native prairie on the Great Plains has been lost to development. Around 60% of this land has been plowed and converted to agriculture to support people living in the U.S. (and the world). Another 10% was used to construct roads, buildings, parking lots, and human-made lakes.

Once disturbed, prairie takes decades to recover, but the healing is superficial. The complexity of life that originally created the prairie would take thousands of years and changes to the land to get us to where we had been.

The plants, roots, and soils of native prairie are complex, site-specific communities that were built up over thousands of years.

The following picture is from a previous post.

This shows the depth of the roots (8 feet) for Buffalograss, the shortest of the grasses that grow on the Great Plains.

Prairie land is the 2nd most diverse ecosystem in the world after rainforests that have a greater variety of plant and animal life.

Here’s a look at the prairie land that is still the way it’s been for thousands of years. Thank you, Mr. Roosevelt, for having the vision of saving important land for future Americans to see.

I don’t know what your opinion is of the changes to the prairie lands; we can understand both sides. We’re just glad that some of the land still can be seen and that the rest of the land is supporting those who live and farm here to support the rest of us.

Buck Hill info

We had wanted to climb to the top of Buck Hill, but my broken ankle put a nix on that idea. At least we can learn a little about this hill that provides a great view of the Badlands.

The hike only takes about 10 minutes and the distance is only 0.1 mile up and back. But . . . the hike is a steep grade with stairs.

The top of the hill is about 2860 feet in elevation, the 2nd highest point in the park. The Badlands stretch out in all directions from this amazing view. Next time we’ll hike up and back.

Geological evidence suggests that the rock on top of Buck Hill was formed as a streambed that meandered across the flat plains long before the Badlands began to form as the glaciers receded.

The hard sandstone that formed at the bottom of the stream now protects the rocks below from erosion. Buck Hill stands firm as surrounding soft sediments below it wash away.

One of the best sights in the national parks are these restrooms along the way. No wonder some call them “comfort stations.”

The sign in the forefront of the previous picture gave us even more information about what we’re seeing.

We all know the importance of sun for growing grass, but here sun affects the rocky slopes.

North-facing slopes hold moisture better than south-facing slopes, making them the perfect place for Rocky Mountain juniper trees to grow.

And here’s what the north-facing slopes look like.

As we turn around 180 degrees, we see the effects of sun exposure. The abundant direct sunlight dries out the soil, allowing only the hardiest of plants to survive.

Without the protection from plant cover and plant roots, these slopes erode easily. Rainwater quickly carves away the soft, unprotected sediments.

And here’s what we saw of the south-facing slopes.

bison

As promised by the park’s brochure, here are some of the bison we saw on our drive.

noontime siesta time
I was wary of the one looking straight at us.

an original entrance

When the park was first built, the main entrance was in a different place. Let’s see what this sign has to tell us.

The hike to see this entrance would take around 30 minutes to walk a distance of 0.5 mile out and back on a gentle, dirt path. Again, next time.

This hike would take us to the historic Old East Entrance Station that looks like it was built by the CCC. The trail passes through a prairie dog town and can be muddy when wet.

In 1935, the park got its start as the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area, and yes, the CCC built the entrance station in 1938.

If you look closely, you can see a motor caravan entering the park in 1949 to celebrate the opening of the national park.

As the interstate replaced the original US highway, the park entrance moved to Medora where we were staying.

Badlands overlook

This sign with a view of the Badlands beyond it helps us understand what we’re seeing.

From Theodore Roosevelt, “This broken country extends back from the river many miles, and has been called always by Indians, French voyagers, and American trappers alike, the ‘Bad Lands.'”

To the Lakota, this land is mako sica, meaning bad land or bad earth. French fur trappers called it les mauvais terres a traverser, meaning the bad lands to cross. Anyone who has been here understands how this place earned its name.

What a view! Can you imagine trying to cross it by climbing over and around? No straight lines here.

So let’s look at how we could get to where we are.

Cliffs, sink holes, coulees, and creeks disrupt the land everywhere we look. These disruptions can turn a short trip into a lengthy ordeal. According to Roosevelt, water is found in “tepid little pools almost dried up,” and are so muddy. He said it could “only be called liquid by courtesy.”

Also along the way are cacti and other prickly plants that can make travel difficult and sometimes painful.

And then we came to the end of the road because repairs were happening further on.

So we turned around and saw this view. I’m so glad we didn’t miss it!

wild horses

As we started driving back, we finally got to see some wild horses!

Now we’re ready to start driving home, but we’ll be seeing a couple of places in South Dakota that I had heard about from my early years living in Iowa.

2020 North Dakota – part 27: Theodore Roosevelt National Park—Badlands’ prairie dogs, bison, and wild horses

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