Hiking in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Will picked the trail for today, which was the Lower Paddock trail. Right upon getting out of the car you are smack in the middle of a Prairie Dog Village.

It is like being at Meerkat Manor. These little guys are cute and pop up and down in their burrows and chirp to alert each other that we are invading.

The trail goes right through their village.

Soon after exiting the village we came to some Buffalo, they were pretty far away and just hanging out.

And then another Village!   I can't get enough of these guys.

The scenery is really amazing, unlike anywhere else I have hiked.

It is pretty warm out but dry and the terrain of the trail is pretty flat for the moment.

We cross back and forth across the river which isn't flowing very much but is very muddy.

There are foot prints of the Buffalo all over not to mention the Buffalo patties. Luckily they don't really smell.

Coming around a hill we spy some wild horses hanging out in the water.

This guy looks mean!

Cactus blossom, there were other wildflowers but all very scrubby. They don't call it the Badlands for nothing.

For the most part there are only trees in a few places and vegetation on one side of the hills







We ended up not really having enough water and ended up doing loop that was 12+ miles. The last few miles we were really trucking it along to get back to the car. We did catch a glimpse of tiny deer faun as we were almost back to the car.  It was a pretty long hike for the first real hiking of our trip.