Medora - Last stop in North Dakota

I was eager to get to Medora because I had heard so much about it from my horseback riding friends.  It is located in what is called the North Dakota Badlands, and since I had seen the South Dakota Badlands, I wondered if they would measure up.  Pretty soon the landscape started to change and their were awesome views in every direction.

Medora sits next to the Little Missouri River.  It was founded in the 1880's by the Marquis de Mores and named for his wife, Medora. They lived in the Chateau de Mores, which is still there, open for tours.  It contains a lot of items that belonged to the de Mores. Theodore Roosevelt came to Medora as a young man to hunt buffalo. He loved the area and decided to become a cattle rancher.  He became a partner in the Maltese Cross Ranch. Later, he established a second ranch, the Elkhorn.   There was a horrible blizzard in 1887, and he lost 60% of his cattle.  He got out of ranching soon after, but his time in Medora helped awaken and refine his interest in nature and conservation. 
Today, the town of Medora has reinvented itself as a tourist's destination.  The town is full of shops, entertainment and historical buildings.  Some of the historical buildings are museums, some, like Joe Ferris Store are still in business!  Probably the biggest attraction is the Medora Musical, which is presented every evening from June 6 till September 7 in the beautiful Burning Hills Amphitheatre.  I had to drag Ron to it, but it turned out that he really enjoyed it.

The show tells the history of Medora, lots of music from country to pop and from way back to current day.  All of the performers were great, including the four legged ones.

There is a cowboy and  two elk on the hillside.  They used the hill as part of the stage and I was amazed to see the horses pick their way down on narrow little trails, even after dark.  The night was beautiful as the full moon rose overhead.

The other attraction that I wanted to be sure to see was the North Dakota Cowboy Museum & Hall of Fame.  It was a very interesting collection of items from a skeleton of Mesohippus (ancestors to the horse) to beautiful Native American beadwork and leather to old cowboy's tools and tack.  Everything centered around the horse and how important it was to the Native Americans (they call their worst day in history the day the horse was taken away from them by the colonists after the Battle of the Little Bighorn) and the cowboys who drove cattle up all the way from Texas.

The south entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park is just outside the city of Medora.  Ron just turned 62, so we were able to buy a lifetime National Parks pass for $10.  What a deal!  We decided to take a drive around the 36 mile Scenic Loop.  Wow, what a drive!

 

 

 

The scenery was jaw dropping and I couldn't even take pictures of some of the best because we were driving on a pretty narrow road with only a few places to pull over.  We also saw the wild horses that are supposed to be descendants of the ones living there when Roosevelt was there.  Of course, there were the prairie dogs towns and then

just as we were getting close to the end of our drive, the traffic stopped and when we looked ahead, this is what we saw

It was incredible!  Buffalo after buffalo filing across the road on their way down to a lower pasture.  I couldn't believe how many there were when I looked down into the pasture they were headed to.  It was quite the finish to our day.  So we headed to the deck of Boots Bar & Grill for an ice cold beer.

It was time to head south toward Rapid City, South Dakota.  As we drove through the southwestern corner of North Dakota and into the northwestern corner of South Dakota, we were amazed by the huge rolling fields of yellow alfalfa, hayfields full of thousands of round bales of hay and every so often a gigantic rock mesa would rise out of the earth.  The towns were few and far between, and it looked like most ranchers didn't have very close neighbors.  As we got closer to Rapid City, the Black Hills began to appear.  It was very clear to see how they got their name - the pine trees that cover them make them look black. Our campground for the next week is No Name City Campground just outside of Sturgis.  I'll be back with more later!

For more info about Medora:  Medora, ND

For more about the ND Cowboy Museum & Hall of Fame: Cowboy