North Dakota

Leaving S. Dakota we headed up to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, while I want to give this park rave reviews because it was fun... In my opinion, unless you are trying to knock off all of the National Parks it is not something you must see in your lifetime.  The wildlife is attractive to kids and adults but bison are found in many parks now. If you are going for the geological features, they are a smaller version of the Badlands in S. Dakota. The history of the park, Roosevelt's history, is what makes it a National Park. 

Athena thought it was hilarious that Roosevelt would rock in his chair around the room.

Looking at Roosevelt's brand symbol for the ranch, which was carved into one of the posts:)

Unfortunately, in various parts of the park you can see fracking.

She takes the trail less traveled.

And she takes the look at me surf approach.

We saw several males apart from the heard and the heard... But for some reason the boys are cooler.

That said, we did have a wonderful day hiking, exploring and looking at wildlife but... it's not necessarily worth the trip up. 

As we left TRNP we stopped by the North Dakota Heritage Center and I was impressed. I had low expectations for two reasons. A. We were in North Dakota. B. It was free. Overall, the state has put a lot of work into the Heritage Center making it interactive and fun. There were areas to play and microscopes to look through. They had some very impressive exhibits, most impressive was the content on the Native American's in the area. Sadly, when my phone died we lost those pictures but the exhibit really helped put into context how life was like and didn't really skim over the negative altercations between the native people and settlers. 

Giant turtles and microscopes to help observe tiny treasures.

We camped at a free site, at Crown Butte Dam in Mandin. The girls loved this site, our tent space backed up to water with tall grasses. They found frogs and fish. We would absolutely camp here again!