Big and Mean - Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

On my cross country trip a couple of years ago, I tried to hit as many national parks as I could, especially those that I had never visited. I also wanted to visit the few states that I had yet to travel through (still have six more to go). My son wanted to stop in North Dakota, and, after a little research, I found that there was a national park there that I had never heard of. So, off we went to kill two birds with one stone.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park was named a national park in 1978 and is located in the badlands area of western North Dakota. This area was made famous by Roosevelt well before he became president, and his love for it sparked the conservationist policies that he espoused during his presidency.

It is a remote park and we didn't see many visitors other than ourselves. We did find a lot of bison, and, when we pulled into a parking lot, we spotted this guy. He was doing a lot of snorting, and I had to get behind our car as protection as I took a few shots of him.