Nicholas and I did not have a very long drive today and we broke the distance up by spending several hours in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This is one of my favorite national parks. One of the smaller national parks and out of the way, it seems to have fewer visitors than others. The badlands and grasslands surrounding it make for a beautiful setting. Every time we have been here we have bison and today was no exception. We really enjoyed our tour of the 36 mile scenic loop drive of the South Unit.We then continued our drive to General Sibling State Park just south of Bismark. Tomorrow our plan is to take the Geo into Bismark to visit the capital and mark one more off of Nicholas' list. General Sibling has quite the connection to New Mexico. He was the Confederate general who lost the battle at Glorieta Pass, the only Civil War battle to take place in NM. He failed on both of his objectives: 1) to establish an overland supply route for the Confederate Army since the ocean ports were block and 2) to gain control of the Colorado gold mines to replenish the Confederate treasury. Why then is there a park named after him in North Dakota? Before the Civil War in 1862, he was responsible for insuring the security of the white settlers in this region. He met that objective, much to the devastation of the Dakota and Lakota tribes. And that's the history lesson for today!
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