South Unit, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND......12th July

Our first stop today in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP is at one of the many Prairie Dog Towns....they really are cute little guys...very Meekat in the way they stand on their hind legs  on the mounds of earth checking for predators etc and chirruping to each other...

This is the Prairie Dog Town....you can just see the little mounds of earth  from their burrows...
The entrance to the Park is just a half mile from our campsite in Medora....4 miles into the park is the beginning of the 36 mile scenic loop road....

This is The Little Missouri River taken from the viewpoint at Wind Canyon hiking trail ......

The River winds it's way through the South Unit into the North Unit and will eventually  flow into The Missouri River...

Beautiful colours of the wild flowers blend in with the masses of yellow of the yellow sweet clover...

The South and North Units of The Theodore Roosevelt NP are made up of the Grasslands and Badlands of North Dakota....the sedimentary rock is not as colourful as The Badlands in South Dakota but is a different experience as a more canyon effect with the river running through them...

This was a really interesting walk out to the peak, next couple of photos are taken from the point...

One of the most popular attractions of the park apart from the fascinating rock formations is viewing wildlife....the park is home to herds of bison, elk, big horn sheep and feral horses to name a few....

Neither of us have seen wild horses before (well apart from the New Forest Ponies that is !) so an extra treat today....
Of course the song for today is Wild Horses, Susan Boyle...with apologies to The Strolling Bones....

We walked out along the Coal Vein trail to this area ...it isn't showing up very well in this pic but at the front is a  big depression....there had been a fire burring in a coal seam from 1951 to 1977, at the time a great tourist attraction, which baked the clay and sand and eventually imploded....must have been fascinating to see it burning...

A very good day in the park...we kept meeting up with a couple from Florida, Chuck and Stephanie and had a great chat with them......turns out we are older hands at this RV game than them, they only bought their first motorhome 4 months ago !!!
There is a "flock" of buzzards that obviously live near the campsite as each evening we are given a great display of their gliding skills as they float on the thermals .....