Medora, ND to Dickinson, North Dakota, Saturday, August 28, 2010.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park was the first thing on our agenda for Saturday. We first visited the Visitors' Center, viewed the exhibits, and watched a video about Teddy Roosevelt's time in the Medora area.

We then drove the loop for the scenic tour. We only visited what is called the South Unit. The area is considered badlands and has a stark kind of beauty. It is not as empty of vegetation as some of the Badlands National Monument. Prairie Dog villages appear regularly along the loop drive. Early in the day, they appeared far away from the road. Later as we neared the end of the loop we saw them very near the road. One had even been killed by a passing car. At the end of the loop, we finally saw bison. They were graving and resting beside the road (they are not fenced). We stopped to admire them. They ignored us. One handsome horse wondered by, but we don't think it was part of the wild horse herd. Probably just an escaped domesticated animal. (More Google images)

From Medora, we drove along I-94 to Dickinson, ND. Their motto is "Explore the Western Edge." Dickinson is home of the Dakota Dinosaur Museum. This is a small museum with a nice collection of dinosaur and other animal fossils and minerals wonderfully displayed. Their mineral collection offers several interesting examples of objects that look like fossils of animals and plants, but are not. One looked like the skin of a dinosaur. Another looked like a fish.

We stayed the night in Dickinson and ate dinner in a nice restaurant. We both had a very tasty garlic soup. Chris had an expensive rack of lamb. And Kathy had an appetizer. The piped in music played Frank Sinatra and similar songs.