National Park Guide: North Dakota's Roosevelt

— -- In 1883, Theodore Roosevelt embarked on one of the many adventures he would take during his life. This one took him to the Dakota Territory, where he went to hunt bison. "He just loved the place," says Eileen Andes.

He loved it enough to buy stakes in two cattle ranches in what would later become North Dakota.

In 1947, Congress honored Roosevelt's legacy of conservation by designating the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The park includes two areas where Roosevelt ran cattle, including the ranch he retreated to after his first wife and mother died on the same day, Feb. 14, 1884.

"Roosevelt went out there to find solitude," says Andes, the park's chief of interpretation. Over the next few years, Roosevelt would come and go between Dakota Territory and his home in New York.

The park boasts grasslands, trails, canoeing on the Little Missouri River, hiking and camping. Roosevelt's second ranch, the Elkhorn Ranch, is a secluded area that looks much as it did when the future president was there.

Like its southern neighbor — South Dakota's Badlands National Park — Theodore Roosevelt National Park has the unique geographic features of badlands, caused by wind and water erosion. South Dakota's Badlands are more "stark," Andes says. "Ours actually have a lot of woody draws, plateaus, quite a bit of grasslands," she says.

The park doesn't get the number of visitors others do. But for Bismarck, N.D., resident Paul Kadrmas, that's great. Kadrmas has visited many of the nation's parks. Some of the more popular ones can be difficult to get into.

The park is home to bison, elk, bighorn sheep and other animals. A couple of years ago, Kadrmas and his wife were canoeing on the Little Missouri when they were able to get close to some of the feral horses that live there.

"It really does still feel like a place where you can get away from people," he says. "There is lots of wildlife there, lots and lots of wildlife."

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About the park

Size: 70,447 acres

Visitors: 563,407 in 2011

Established: 1947

History: Named in honor of Teddy Roosevelt, regarded as the nation's conservation president and who owned cattle on the site in the 1880s.

When visiting: North Unit Visitor Center is 10 miles south of Watford City, N.D., on U.S. 85. South Unit Visitor Center is at 315 2nd Ave., Medora, N.D. Painted Canyon Visitor Center is 7 miles east of Medora on I-94 at Exit 32. Visitor information for South Unit: 701-623-4466. North Unit information: 701-842-2333.

Of note: At his Elkhorn Ranch cabin, 35 miles north of Medora, Roosevelt liked to sit on his porch in a rocking chair while listening to the wind in the trees.