Teddy Roosevelt National Park
For my 40th birthday, Lauren and I left Rapid City, South Dakota for greener skies in sunny North Dakota. Our plan was to spend the first day in Medora at the Rough Rider Hotel, have a nice meal and cruise the Teddy. We were on a mission to find a few of the 150 wild horse that live in the park. Medora is right next to the South Unit of the park as there are two distinct areas for the park. We never made it up to the North Unit. Thanks Botox appointments!
We buzzed into the park and immediate found some buffalo on the high ridge overlooking the river and interstate below. I got a great shot of a buffalo right away and felt pretty great about everything right out of the gate. We made a couple of quick turns and spotted some Turkeys. We stopped and took some shots and kept cruising. We came across a farm house that still exists in the park and it was what I felt, a good area to take a photo or two to mix in the humanity aspect with the park.
We were down in the river bottom so we had no idea that the wind was blowing 40 miles per hour and the clouds were rolling in. Once we got up to the top of the ridge, we were in for a surprise. Right at the top, there was a nice pullout and a cool overlook of the North Dakota Badlands and Lauren said she wanted a photo of the two of us. Well we step outside and got sandblasted and pelted with rain so this wasn’t going to work. I took a couple of landscapes and we jumped back in and headed down the road. About 3/4 a mile later, we see a pair of wild horses right along the side of the road. We were overjoyed as we didn’t think we would see any of them. We snapped some pics and headed down the road. The storm was starting to get worse and the rain started pouring. We saw a couple of Pronghorn, Laurens first time seeing one of these, and an Elk cresting a ridge.
Several years ago, a storm washed out the road on the loop and we had to turn around. They haven’t gotten around to fixing that road yet. Its one of the least visited National Parks, so they are in no hurry.
On our way back out, in the pouring rain, we see the wild horses again and I got out to see if I can capture a cool photo of that. I think its a decent photo, but it just looks like ISO noise and not heavy rain. Those horses just turned their ass to the wind and keep chowing down on the wild grassland.
We buzzed out of the park in the rain and headed to supper at the Rough Rider hotel. After a great meal and a drink for Lauren, I convinced her that we need to wake up at 4:30 am and do a sunrise in the park.
We woke up in the pitch black and buzzed back to where we saw the wild horses the day before. There is a nice overlook up there that faced East. We were treated to a nice sunrise and headed back toward town. On the way in, we spotted a couple dozen Turkeys and several great landscape photos. The fog had rolled into a couple of the valleys and one with the moonset happening. The Little Missouri had the steam rising off of it over a pristine meadow. I was super pumped again as I think I got a couple of decent ones.
As it was my birthday weekend, I got to choose the place for breakfast as we made the short trip to Dickinson. I chose Taco John’s. Lauren rolled her eyes and accepted her fate. We spent the next several days fishing with my friend Bob and trying to catch a 40”+ Pike on a fly rod. While we didn’t find success at that, we had a hell of a time. I got to take his youngest son’s senior portraits as well. More to come on that.
All in all, it was a great 40th Birthday with spent with Lauren. We got to check off another National Park for the both of us. Its funny as I went to college in Dickinson and have driven that road a couple of dozen times, that was the first time I had been to Medora and the Teddy.
Equipment Used:
Sony a7rV
Sony 70-200mm f/2.8
Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
Sony 14mm f/1.8
