Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota.

In mid-September, 2020, we explored the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park for the first time. For travelers along I-94, the South Unit is but a short jog off the Interstate. The North Unit, on the other hand, is an hour’s drive north of I-94 just off U.S. Highway 85. Unless you have another reason to travel north of the Interstate, it’s an easy choice to choose the South Unit, the largest section of the park.

For that reason, we’d never made that trip to the north. On this trip, however, with time at our disposal, we decided to head north on 85 to see what’s there. At one of the rest areas, another traveler asked of our destination, and I’d just replied the generic “Theodore Roosevelt National Park.” She volunteered that she had just returned from the North Unit and saw much more wildlife there than she’d ever seen at the South Unit. We would not be disappointed to find her statement an accurate assessment.

About the photo: Mid-September is a time of change and at one of the park pull-outs, we stopped to view a river valley, the river completely disguised amid a forest of trees that were just starting to show their autumn colors. I chose to use my Samsung S20U to capture some images. I loaded them into Adobe Lightroom and used the Panorama tool to join two adjacent photos of the valley. After basic processing there, I moved the image to Luminar 4 and completed the final edits. If your browser supports the function, click on the image for a closer view.

John Steiner