Medora, ND, to Williston, ND (I-94 east to Belfield, Hwy 85 north to Williston)
The primary driver behind the current economy in the Medora area is tourism due to the proximity of Theodore National Park. The entrance to the park is actually in Medora as the bluffs which rise to the immediate north of the town form the boundary of the southern unit of the national park. The geology of the pre-historic ocean floor and the current weather patterns contribute to frequent, intense thunderstorms that have carved the landscape into the badlands of North Dakota. The river itself wanders across a heavily wooded flood plain approximately a mile wide with nature’s sculptures framing horizon on either side.
Theodore National Park, Southern Unit
The road into the park climbs steeply from Medora and looking back from pull-out the bustling little town hides under the lush green trees on the valley floor.
Turning a corner, the view into the interior of the park unfolds.
A closer look at the formations reveals the multi-colored layers left during the ebb and flow of the ocean as it was impacted by the advance and retreat of the northern glaciers during the Ice Ages. Brilliant colors denote various minerals in the soil. The thin dark band is coal, formed by the decay of a lush plant life period which was later inundated under water as denoted by the layers above.
The Painted Rock overlook from I-94 gives another panoramic view of the southern unit.
While the landscape is stunning, the two big draws in the southern unit are multiple prairie dog towns and the headliner, the main buffalo herd. Prairie dogs are the “rats” of the prairie. A very social, curious animal, they live in burrows underground in communities that can number in the thousands. Used to the attention of tourists they don’t even bother to scurry underground as people get out of cars to take photographs.
Frontiersmen cursed the prairie dog and tried to exterminate them (a losing cause) because their burrows posed a significant hazard to horses and cattle, who could easily break a leg with one miss-step.
This year has been a wet year in southwestern North Dakota and the valley floor is still a lush green in early September. The buffalo herd lingers in the morning sun, entertaining the multitude of tourists who stop to take pictures, many ignoring the multiple signs warning of the danger of approaching buffalo. In the picture on the right dust clouds rise as several buffalo roll around in the dirt, cleaning themselves of fleas and ticks.
The herd is scattered about a mile along the park road, with this year’s calves standing out in their light brown coats.
Leaving Medora, I get back on I-94 to Belfield, 15 miles to the east. We quickly rise out of the badlands and emerge onto the western edge of the Great Plains.
At Belfield our road turns north on Hwy 85 and hints of the upcoming Bakken oil fields appear, primarily an increasing number of semi-trucks and tankers on the road.
About 50 miles later the highway abruptly drops down into the valley of the Little Missouri River. The river has been flowing north about 20-30 miles to our left but makes a sharp turn to the east as it flows along the edge of an ancient glacial flow. The northern unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park encompasses the turn in the river and about 25 miles of the badlands on either side of the valley.
Theodore National Park, Northern Unit
The road into the park begins by skirting the edge of the valley floor, providing views to the southwest up the river.
The valley floor ends abruptly on the northern side as “slump bluffs” line the horizon. One of the defining characteristics of the Bakken formation are layers of virtually impenetrable bentonite clay, which turns “greasy” when wet and thus other types of soil “slide” off it, slumping down the cliff sides.
Then the road climbs up to the top of the bluffs and one can see the rolling plains extending to the north towards Canada. I stop and to the left look down into the valley where the dark bands of bentonite are clearly visible, and then to the right look across the billowing grass…
At the Cannonball formation, balls of rock have formed inside a softer sandstone cliff.
Having turned around (the road dead-ends about 14 miles into the park) I get another view of the multi-colored bands to the north.
Leaving the park, the road immediately climbs up out of the valley and into the heart of the Bakken, the oil fields that boomed during the early 2000’s until the bust occurred a couple of years ago. The price of oil has plummeted, the boom is over (for now), and the area is a bit “tattered” around the edges…
The Bakken
Under those layers of bentonite clay lay millions of barrels of oil in the shale. Oil has been produced for decades in eastern Montana and western North Dakota but not in particularly large quantities. Advances in technology lead to the discovery of processes that allowed the extraction of the oil from deep within the shale and the boom was on. The sudden immigration of thousands of workers into the area overwhelmed the existing infrastructure and oil companies were forced to create “man camps” to house their workers. Many have been torn down but along Hwy 85 north to Watford City and Williston several are still visible from the highway.
The day was stormy and not conducive to taking pictures (for some reason I’m a bit adverse to standing in cold the rain to take pictures!) so I dash into Williston, trying to avoid rain, lightening and hail, taking pictures from inside the Lunch Box. Williston sprawls across bluffs on the north side of the Missouri River. Historically a farming center, the tallest buildings in town are still the grain elevators looming in the distance.
Unfortunately, the charms of Williston escaped me. Located at the crossing of US 2 and Hwy 85, the “strips” on all four highways leading into the city center are lined with evidence of the boom and bust of the oil economy. Light industry related in some way to the extraction of oil from the ground, abandoned storefronts, unfinished construction and enormous lots of machinery line both sides of the highways. Later I find out that it used to be even worse but the city of Williston just recently enforced restrictions on modular housing that resulted in the removal of significant numbers of abandoned temporary housing units. Downtown Williston stretches about six blocks north of the railroad depot and is a tidy, compact contrast to the sprawl that surrounds it.
Again, there may be many more attractions in and around Williston, I just missed them. I have to say that the Bakken is not what I expected. Maybe I’ve watched too many movies, but I was looking for towering oil rigs and huge tanks. Not there (at least where I looked). Instead, marring the billowing landscape is a new type of insect, the North Dakota “praying mantis”. Often painted khaki in an effort to blend in, the non-stop pumping oil rigs and their storage tanks (frequently painted a khaki color, perhaps in an effort to minimize their impact on the view?) punctuate the fields of gold and tan.
As we get closer to Minot, the evidence of oil dwindles and agriculture again resumes its primacy amongst the rolling plains that extend in every direction.
Next up: “North” North Dakota
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