The Dakotas Road Trip Day 4

My fourth day in the Dakotas was my most rushed day due to calling my trip short which looking back at it was a mistake. I was originally going to spend the night in North Dakota, but I decided to make a day trip of it. This is not something I recommend others do but you live and learn.

This day I left Rapid City, SD bright and early to see the town of Deadwood after watching the show on tv for so many years. The town is nice but to be honest just like so many other places it is a noticeably big tourist trap.

The town itself has a tourist western vibe which is what you would expect from a town selling the wild wild west days. If you are in this part of South Dakota I do recommend you swing by but again I would not make a trip just for Deadwood.

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After leaving Deadwood I headed straight north to visit North Dakota and primarily visit the Theodore Roosevelt National Park!

This National Park has been on my list for quite some time since I do admire Roosevelt for his contributions to our nation’s resources and his love of the outdoors.

The drive from Rapid City, SD to Medora the town the sits outside of TRNP is about 4 hours depending on the day. The one thing to know ahead of time is how large TRNP is and that is divided into two parks, the south and north side. I personally only visited the south part of the park due to underestimating how large the park is.

I will be going into more detail on Theodore Roosevelt National Park in a separate post but want to make it clear if you are anywhere near this park you MUST make it a stop. The scenic drives are amazing and the chances of seeing wild bison are almost guaranteed. I thought this was exaggerated but the moment I drove into the park I saw a stampede of them crossing the road.

After spending time in the park, you can take a rest at Medora the town that sits right outside of the South Entrance. The North Entrance is about an hour north from Medora so take that into account when visiting.

Medora is a quaint small town and one that probably solely exists due to the National Park. They have a show every night that gives a brief and potentially stretched history of Teddy Roosevelt. The reviews are good but due to COVID I just did not feel comfortable sitting in an arena with others.

My day covered driving which is why I regret cutting my trip short since I truly underestimated how much time TRNP would take to explore. My recommendation for anyone coming to Medora and North Dakota is to at a minimum plan a full day or preferably two days to explore the parks and town here.

My Dakotas Summer Road Trip was truly awesome and eye-opening to parts of this country I never thought I would experience. I cannot recommend the Dakotas for anyone looking for a road trip to experience some amazing things. I also highly recommend Rapid City as your base camp for most adventures in South Dakota and Medora for the second leg of the trip.

My final day of the trip was just driving to my parents which was very uneventful and boring to be blunt.

I hope everyone is getting out there to get some road trips in and keep exploring this amazing country of ours.

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