The North Unit: The Wilder Half of Theodore Roosevelt NP
The South Unit gets the crowds, and the North Unit gets the North Dakotans. Sixty miles apart by road and a whole temperament apart by experience, the North Unit is the wilder half of Theodore Roosevelt National Park: a fourteen-mile dead-end scenic drive into deeper, redder badlands above the Little Missouri, ending at the Oxbow Overlook with the river curving through country that looks barely changed from 1883.
The Drive
From the visitor center near the entrance, the paved road climbs into the badlands with a string of overlooks worth every stop. The Cannonball concretions - round, cannonball-sized stone spheres balanced on pedestals of softer mudstone - are the park's strangest geology, formed in the ancient river deltas and left standing as the softer rock around them erodes. River Bend Overlook frames the Little Missouri valley below a handsome CCC-era stone shelter, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and still standing like it grew there. The road ends at Oxbow Overlook; on a clear day the view runs for miles over the river breaks.
Hiking the Quiet Side
The North Unit's trailhead country is for hikers who like their solitude seasoned with a little commitment: the Achenbach Trail drops into the river bottom and climbs the buttes, and the Long X Trail connects toward the river. Bison, elk, and wild horses all use this country, usually at a respectful distance from the road. Bring water, watch the sky - there is no shelter out there - and give yourself the time the unit deserves.
The RV Notes
The North Unit sits farther from Medora - roughly an hour's drive via US 85 north of the river at Watford City - and the Long X Bridge over the Little Missouri at the entrance is the practical limit for longer rigs; tow vehicles are the smart choice. Round-trip from our Buffalo Gap Ranch basecamp it made a full and satisfying day: quieter roads, bigger views, and the best light of the whole park at the day's end. If the South Unit is Theodore Roosevelt's front porch, the North Unit is his backcountry - and you should see both.