Today we drove north to the Russell Cave National Monument in Bridgeport, Alabama.
The Visitor Center is being renovated so there is a temporary one off to the side. The worker inside was friendly and helpful.
He shared a lot of information about the prehistoric cave shelter and some of the long spears they used as weapons thousands of years ago.
The walkway to the huge prehistoric cave in the woods is in great condition and accessible for wheelchairs all the way. It was an easy short walk.
The walk through the woods was beautiful. We saw several squirrels digging around in the leaves. We were warned to stay on the path due to venomous snakes in the area. 😮
We gasped in amazement as soon as we saw the cave. It was cool to see.
The first cave dwellers who lived here were from about 11,000 years ago. According to NPS.gov —
“Russell Cave is an archeological site with one of the most complete records of prehistoric cultures in the Southeast.”
Animal bones, primitive tools, and broken pottery found in the cave date back to at least 9,000 years ago.
The boardwalk goes clear inside the cave.
The monument was established on May 11, 1961, when 310 acres of land were donated by the National Geographic Society to the American people. -Wikipedia
What a beautiful view from the inside of the cave looking out.
I’m so glad we took the time to drive to this national park in Alabama.
We thoroughly enjoy walking through the woods to find places like this.
Thanks for coming along. I hope you enjoyed seeing Russell Cave National Monument in northern Alabama.
Abraham Lincoln lived on this farm as a boy from 1811 to 1816. He once said that his earliest memories were of the Knob Creek place. A younger brother was born here.
This is another one of the many national parks on the list of many. The boyhood home unit is actually part of the birthplace national park even though it is ten miles away from the Sinking Spring Farm where he was born in 1809. It doesn’t have its own sticker, but it does have a stamp for the National Park Pass Book.
One of the signs says that there was a title dispute over the Sinking Spring property and Abraham’s parents had to move when he was only two years old.
The building on the left is a tavern built in 1928 to serve tourists visiting the park and wanting to see the cabin.
The farm at Knob Creek contained a mere 30 acres when the Lincolns lived here. They grew crops like corn, tobacco, and pumpkins.
There is an overlook trail through the property that is approximately 3 miles long with strenuous difficulty. The sign said to beware of snakes and ticks. Just the word strenuous was enough to deter me.
If you are ever in the area of Hodgenville, Kentucky, be sure to stop and explore the land that Abraham Lincoln, America’s 16th President, knew as a child.
This part of Kentucky is gorgeous. I can see why his family settled here.
Thanks for reading and following us on our travels.
We drove to Dayton, Ohio today to visit the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park so I could get the stamp and sticker in my National Park book.
I didn’t know that Paul Laurence Dunbar’s house was available for touring as part of this National Park. We arrived too late to actually see the inside of the house or the grounds. It closed at 4:00 pm.
Who is Paul Laurence Dunbar you ask?
He was an American poet, lyricist, essayist, and novelist of the late 19th century who was born in Dayton, Ohio.
He was born on June 27, 1872, to parents who were slaves in Kentucky before the American Civil War.
He was one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation.
One of the poems I especially like of his is called “Dreams.”
What dreams we have and how they fly
Like rosy clouds across the sky;
Of wealth, of fame, of sure success,
Of love that comes to cheer and bless;
And how they wither, how they fade,
The waning wealth, the jilting jade —
The fame that for a moment gleams,
Then flies forever, — dreams, ah — dreams!
Suffering from tuberculosis, which then had no cure, Dunbar died in Dayton, Ohio, at the age of 33. It’s a shame that he died so young.
Thanks for reading and joining me for another history lesson.
Rich and I have always loved traveling and seeing the country. We love the outdoors and nature. We crave the simple peacefulness of nature and have spent our lives together taking every chance we can to travel and see the beauty around us.
We spent many years hiking and taking day trips to nearby parks and places. We spent some time tent camping at State Parks. As of April 2022, we sold our sticks and bricks home, sold nearly everything we own, and bought an RV. We have both officially retired from our day jobs and are full-time travelers now in our RV.
In preparing to spend the rest of our lives exploring as much as we can of this beautiful country, we found out that it would greatly benefit us to purchase anAmerica the Beautiful Pass. Discovering that most national sites and parks charge a hefty entrance fee, it was financially smart to purchase this pass for $80 for one year.
Each pass admits the pass owner and all people in the vehicle to all national sites and federal recreation lands.
Rich turned 62 in December of 2022, so we purchased a lifetime pass for him. With this, we get to visit any national park or monument without paying any entrance fee for the rest of his life.
I highly recommend considering this purchase if you expect to visit very many national park sites this year.
Thanks for coming along with us on all our traveling adventures.
An unusual fact about “Theodore Roosevelt National Park” is that the South Unit is in Mountain Time Zone, and when we traveled to the North Unit we noticed that we entered Central Time Zone and lost an hour. We visited this part of the park on Thursday, August 10.
It was sprinkling and cloudy as we traveled north from the campgrounds but the countryside is beautiful and breathtaking whether it is cloudy and raining or not.
The North Unit Entrance and Visitor Center is located on Highway 85. The small visitor center doesn’t contain much but you can get your National Park book stamped here and purchase stickers or small souvenirs. They also show the same 17-minute video that we already watched at the south unit.
The rugged solitude of this wilderness is not to be missed or underestimated. This section is much less visited than the south unit, probably because it is more than 50 miles north of the interstate. But don’t let that fool you into thinking it isn’t worth the trip. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
The scenic drive here is 14 miles long one way to the end at the Oxbow Overlook and then you have to turn around and come back the same way. The first half of the drive stays low in the badlands and the first sight to stop and see is the Cannonball Concretions.
These large round rocks littering the ground and protruding from the side of the cliff are mysterious and bizarre. It seems they simply formed this way from the sediment, and erosion is slowly exposing them within the walls of the mountains. Eventually, they fall out and land on the ground.
The rain and clouds cleared away and a blue sky appeared. I just love the look of the photos when the sky is this blue.
As we continued down the path, we did see one buffalo lying by the side of the road and one deer up on a hill. We were told that the deer in the park were mule deer. I can never tell the difference from a distance.
The middle area of the park is filled with grasslands and prairie. It’s almost like leaving one world behind and entering another totally different landscape. Sometimes the change is as quickly as you can drive around the bend in the road.
Here we saw some more prairie dogs, which some countries, I think, call ground squirrels, and even caught a glimpse of a few wild turkeys in the distance.
We were told to keep our eyes out for bighorn sheep on the steep cliff ledges, but it just wasn’t our day to see any, even though they say driving is the best way to view wildlife.
Most of the road through the park is paved, with a few small exceptions where it must have been washed out and temporarily fixed.
The Little Missouri River winds through the countryside and there is a short 0.7-mile easy nature trail that explores the river valley, or you can hike the longer 1.4-mile moderately difficult long loop trail.
Other trails include the 4.2-mile Caprock Coulee Trail loop which contains some of the most scenic views in the park. The River Bend Overlook has a wheelchair-accessible viewing deck or an overlook shelter down a short trail. And at the Oxbow Overlook, there is a 2-mile round trip trail up to Sperati Point by way of the Achenbach Trail. You can also take a short stroll up a sidewalk to the rim of the badlands.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit is remote and rugged. The landscape is beautiful and I want to see as much of this country as I can while I can.
Thanks for coming along with us on our travels and journeys. I appreciate the time you spend reading my articles and stories.
On Monday, August 7, we pulled into Oleo Acres RV Park in Belfield, North Dakota. This is a wonderful campground with full hookups, but no other amenities at the moment for a reasonable price. It is located on Highway 85 between the south unit and the north unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
The national park is separated into two sections by a national grassland area. Some of the other campers told us they had seen wild turkeys in the campground. We did not for the few days we were there.
On Tuesday, August 8, we drove south to I-94 and stopped first at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center and Rest Area. The canyon is gorgeous from this view.
There is a 0.2-mile loop trail to see the stunning vistas along the rim of the Painted Canyon, and also a 1-mile loop to explore further the interesting geology of the badlands from top to bottom and back up again. With my bum leg at the time, sadly I was not able to walk either one.
A few more miles down I-94 is the south entrance visitor center. This is where I stamped my National Park Book. We watched the 17-minute park film titled “Refuge of the American Spirit,” which introduces visitors to the park and talks about the time Theodore Roosevelt spent here. I always enjoy watching the short videos to learn more about the parks we are visiting.
Just a short distance behind the visitor center is his cabin.
You can walk out to the Maltese Cross Cabin yourself and explore inside or take a 20-minute ranger-led tour for more information. Rich and I like to just explore on our own.
This was a temporary home for the future president when he would split his time between New York and North Dakota. He eventually purchased land and established the Elkhorn Ranch which is located in a third smaller section of the park we did not take time to visit. It is a long hike to the ruins of that ranch.
From here we headed into the park for the scenic drive. Part of the road was closed so the drive was about an hour one way, then we had to turn around and come back the same way. Oh, but what a scenic drive it was. Rich and I both agreed that this was one of the prettiest national parks we have seen to date. But they are all magnificent in their own way.
Rich and I both agreed that this is one of the prettiest National Parks we have seen to date. But they are all magnificent in their own way.
The first stop along the way is the Medora Overlook. The historic town of Medora was founded in 1883 by French Nobleman The Marquis de Mores. The Northern Pacific Railroad had come through the area just a few years prior, and this opened up the region to investors and adventurers from the East. For a few years, the town of Medora grew and thrived, but the harsh winter of 1886–87 killed off thousands of cattle and livestock causing the town and industry to completely collapse.
Medora is now a thriving tourist destination at the south entrance of the park.
The next trail pull-off is the Skyline Vista. This is a short 0.2-mile round trip paved path leading to a viewing area overlooking the Little Missouri River. We didn’t walk it, but Rich walked out to the edge of the pull-off and looked down.
One of the first things we noticed was the hundreds and hundreds of prairie dogs in the area. These prairie dog towns are everywhere throughout the park. They are so fun to stop and watch.
There are several wonderful side roads and pull-off views to stop and see along the scenic drive. Make sure you do them all. And be sure to keep your eyes out for wildlife. There are horses, buffalo, deer, and elk in the park besides the prairie dogs.
We drove down the Cottonwood turnoff and the views were absolutely gorgeous. After this turnoff is the Peaceful Valley Ranch.
This is the only original ranch house remaining in the park. It served as a popular place for guided horseback rides from 1918 to 2014. The property changed hands many times over the years. At this time, the property and buildings are not being used. Three of the buildings, including the house, are included on the National Register of Historic Places.
Some of the trails along the way are the Halliday Well Paddock Creek Trail, the Wind Canyon Trail 0.4 mile loop, the Boicourt Trail 0.3 mile paved path, and the Coal Vein Nature Trail 0.8 mile loop. I wasn’t able to walk any of these trails so we just kind of drove on by.
Once we reached the end of the road we had to turn around and come back the same way. This allowed me to take pictures of the other side of the road all the way back.
We saw some wild horses and I snapped a photo as we passed by.
We were fortunate enough to be there on a day when the entire herd of buffalo in the south unit decided to bless us with their presence as they journeyed across the road from one side of the park to the other. What a sight it was to see all the babies tagging along behind their mothers.
A park ranger finally had to come help get the herd off the road. The cars in front were inching slowly but only accomplished moving the herd an inch or two as they stayed in the road and crossed back and forth.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park South Unit is beautiful and I see what the man loved about the park. Stay tuned for our visit to the North Unit.
If you ever have the chance to explore Theodore Roosevelt National Park make sure you take the time to do the South Unit.
