We woke up at 5:15AM and drove the scenic route before it got too hot to see some more animals. (We also wake up really early on road trips, not something that happens at home.) After our morning adventure where we saw buffalo, elk, mule deer, and mustangs, we drove back to our campsite and got ready for the rest of the day. As you can see from the photo, there was smoke from the western fires as we drove the loop. There were also a lot of buffalo calves this trip.
Before we left we drove to the South Unit Visitor's Center where they had artifacts from Theodore Roosevelt's time in this area and his presidency, including his cabin. We then went to the Painted Canyon Visitor Center, which is just off the interstate. The North and South Unit Visitor's Centers are just over an hour apart. There is not much in between these two points so we made sure to get gas as soon as we realized we may not be near services. The gas station was completely automatic including the largest snack machine which we had ever seen.
At the North Unit we stopped by the smaller visitor's center and did the scenic loop road. We saw more mule deer, buffalo, and a herd of mustangs. My favorite thing we saw on this day was Theodore National Park North Unit Cannonball Concretions.
By the time we left it was 3PM and we began driving to Glacier National Park. We hadn't had lunch yet so we stopped at Burrito Bros in Watford, ND. It was great! If you're following a similar route we definitely recommend stopping here. Jennifer had the nachos and Jerry had a steak burrito. We finally stopped fairly late in Havre, ND to camp.
