We moved on from Montana to North Dakota and the town of Medora. This small town is also the entrance to the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The park was established in 1947 as a memorial to the former President. He just loved the area and spent a lot of time there.
We had tickets that night to dinner and a show. We started out at the Pitchfork Fondue Restaurant. Yes, they take 12oz steak filets and put them on a pitchfork and deep fry. The view is great, and they even had live music, not the best steak I’ve had by any means, but it also wasn’t the worst. The steak does have a different flavor.
Then we walked on over to the amphitheater. This little town of 132 has an outdoor amphitheater that seats 2,800 and runs it’s musical almost nightly through the summer season. The musical always gives the history of Medora’s founding and tells the story of Harold Schafer the driving force behind the musical. The musical is different every year bringing in new songs and skits throughout. They had a skit about Harold bringing his musical idea to the Shark Tank to seek investors. After the show, I hear the lady behind me asking her husband, if he thought that Harold really brought his idea to the Sharks. Really?? The musical has been an annual production since 1965. I know my granddaughters think the Sharks are old, but not that old.
We spent the next day at the Theodore Roosevelt Park in the badlands of North Dakota. We did a few of the shorter hikes and enjoyed the Bison traffic jams. Some of those guys are enormous and the males can reach up to 2,000 lbs. They may look slow but go attend a University of Colorado football game. They have Ralphie, the Bison run at half time. Bison can reach speeds of 35 miles an hour.
Mom????Mom??? 
We smelled smoke. Fire has been burning since 2018.
The next morning started off cloudy and a little cooler, a welcomed change from the upper 90’s the day before. This time it was a 68-mile drive to the north unit of the park. As expected, it was a lot less crowded. Another scenic drive and the bison did not disappoint us either. They decided to block the road as we were leaving the park.
When you have to scratch that itch.
The Medora Musical isn’t the only show in town. They keep a pretty full schedule of entertainment with different musical groups and plays at various times throughout the day, if that is more your thing. There is also a state park right there and a 144-mile bike trail that is said to be quite nice. But alas, not enough time as we were headed out again to the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Rapid City was to be our base for the next 6 nights. The city made a decent location for seeing everything that we wanted, but also made for an awful lot of driving. But driving is also one of the things to enjoy doing in the area. There are a number of scenic drives and I can see why motorcyclists flock to Sturgis, SD, for their annual motorcycle rally. The rally began back in 1938 by one of the local motorcycle clubs. Currently, the rally is in its 82nd year and typically draws crowds averaging 500,000 people. We just happened to plan our trip and be there for the final weekend. We met up with one of the granddaughters’ grandpas and his youngest daughter who were there with their Harleys enjoying the rally. Rather than meet in Sturgis we met for lunch in the town of Deadwood. There was a great drive from Rapid City through the town of Nemo and on to Deadwood.
And this time a turkey traffic jam. 
We got there in the morning and toured the Days of ’76 Museum. This museum provides some history on the 76 Days Gold Rush celebration in Deadwood and some history on the towns more notorious residents. We took a stroll through the Historic downtown as well. Normally, in the summer months they have reenactments of western shootouts, etc. But those events aren’t done during the Sturgis rally. ☹
Even a storm trooper was there. I don’t know how he didn’t pass out from the heat.
Then we headed back to Wyoming and Devil’s Tower. It was the first National Monument designated in the U.S. back in 1906. The tower is 867 feet tall and is composed of a rare igneous rock. They have a couple of trails going around the base of the tower and the tower is also a favorite for rock climbers. It was about 97 degrees and doing the 2.8-mile Red Beds Trail just wiped us out.
We even spotted a climber.
Stay tuned for more on our time in the Dakotas.