I've grown up in the United States and I love to travel. I have a goal to visit all 50 states. I recently announced to my wife that I would like to visit North Dakota. I asked if she would like to come and she said no. I asked my kids if they would like to come and my youngest said no. My older daughter said yes to get a break from her sister as much as anything.
North Dakota is among the least visited and least populous states in the USA. I did a little research before my trip and it paid off handsomely.
My daughter and I got in late on a Friday night in Bismarck. The next day we slept in and went to lunch at a Thai restaurant. We visited the Gateway to Science Museum which she loved. I announced that I wanted to take her on a hike in the national park and she was not interested. So I used my powers of persuasion (we hung out in our hotel room and I let her play a game on my cell phone (the game was Soulkeep, you should check it out if you haven't)) Then we drove to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It's a long drive from Bismarck, over 2 hrs. The app on my iPhone took me on dirt roads like Government Creek Rd and Franks Creek Rd north of the park and I wondered if I had made a mistake. We started out on the Wind Canyon Trail and my daughter loved it so much that she asked if we could do another hike, so we did. We did the Boicourt Trail. We saw some bison on the way and on the trail we saw a bison that was relatively close in terms of distance, but it was down an extremely steep slope which made me feel reasonably safe. My daughter had so much fun counting bison patties along the trail.
After the Boicourt Trail we followed Scenic Loop Drive southeast and were rewarded with a pit toilet (much needed relief after the last potty break in Bismarck). Along the way we saw many more bison and some wild horses. On the way back we enjoyed the sunset. It was interesting that the national park didn't have the big national park sign at the entrance (there was no entrance) and there was no fee to get into the park.
If you ever decide to visit North Dakota the Theodore Roosevelt National Park is a must see. We also visited the Gateway to Science Museum again, the North Dakota Heritage Center which was free and the Fort Lincoln State Park.
Bismarck was so clean and felt super safe.
I hope this post has been helpful and informative. Let me know in the comments if you have recommendations for making my posts better.