No signage to help you locate this ranch, but the directions are fairly straight forward and Google did not send us off-track the way it does on occasion.
We have water and electric hook-up and Rhonda King, the owner, has a sewer caddy to help us dump our tanks.
We are parked next to the house, which means we can access her WIFI easily. It is good enough quality that we can stream movies.
There is a campground with full hook-up sites on her property, but then we wouldn't be able to access her WIFI, plus it is full right now, so we are in her "overflow" area.
There are corrals in the campground area, but they are all full. This means our horses get a really large pen across the street, which is actually better.
We went into Medora and ate at the Little Missouri Saloon. Dollar bills stuck to the ceiling throughout the place.
The California Gold Rush started January 24, 1848. People flocked from all over to strike it big in the gold industry. Some found gold and got rich; others went home empty-handed. Times were rough, and returning to where one came from became a bigger challenge every month.
The Gold Rush brought over 300,000 transplants to California and with the influx of people came the decline of resources and supplies. 90,000 of these immigrants came in 1849 (they were called the Forty-Niners). Over 100,000 Native Californians died between 1848-1868, as resources dwindled and their hunting and gathering areas became occupied by newcomers. Many who could not make it home, stayed, making California their new home. The struggle for jobs, land, food, and other mainstays left people wondering how they could get home and encouraged new transplants to stow money in a safe place, like on the ceiling of a bar. They would write their names on their “Get Home” money and staple it to the ceiling of the local bar. If they did not find gold, they could come back to the bar, still having enough money to get back.
Whether miners never made it back from mining, or they no longer needed the money, cash was abandoned to the ceilings of these pubs. The money that was never claimed, stayed there, and in some pubs, is still there today. Thus, the tradition of pinning money to the ceiling of a bar was born.
The food was mediocre and the service was poor, but the place was packed.
I wanted to trailer from where we were staying to Theodore Roosevelt National Park which is right outside Medora. After dinner, we drove to the Painted Canyon Visitor Center, as the website said this was the place to park and ride.
Sunset over the Badlands
The Lakota people dubbed this region “mako sica,” or “bad lands,” long ago because its rocky terrain, lack of water and extreme temperatures made it difficult to traverse.
We told Rhonda our plans and she said she would trailer the campers out to the Painted Canyon Visitor Center and show them where to ride. So, Ari joined that group to ride through the park. I stayed back at the trailer for a couple of reasons: 1) My horse does not do well on group rides 2) Rhonda said her route involved bushwhacking off the trail and going off trail makes me anxious. 3) I figured Ari would mark the trail on his Gaia app and then we would do it just the two of us on our own the next day.
Rhonda is a photographer and she does photo shoots of her rides and gives her campers copies of the pictures for free, so she took a lot of wonderful pictures of Ari and Lennox on their outing.
wild elk in the park
So the next day, Ari and I took the stock trailer to the same place to do our own version of the ride.
Here is the rental stock trailer - $40/day.
The parking in the lot is good enough to manage large trailers, so we had no issues.
I took a picture of a turkey vulture. We didn't see any elk or bison on our ride - but we saw plenty of vultures...guess they were hopeful we would get lost.
I understand why it is called the Badlands. The terrain is so rough and you have to constantly detour around these small rock mounds. I got pretty cranky on this ride. It was in the mid 80s and overcast, so it wasn't that hot, but the terrain made me feel edgy for some reason. Ari did a pretty good job of keeping us on Rhonda's route - even when we were bushwhacking off the trail.
Ari took this picture of Rhonda when he was on the group ride.
Every so often on the drive, you will spot one of these oil rigs. It reminded me of Southern California.
Most of the roads are not paved. Rhonda told Ari it is because North Dakota doesn't have enough people to make it worthwhile to pave the roads.
We are a good hour away from the closest grocery store in Dickinson.
Rhonda also gave us a home-made pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing. It was delicious. She says she gives a treat to all her guests.
We have three more campgrounds we are staying at in the Medora area. This one will be hard to beat.
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