Painted Canyon is the first thing you see of the North Dakota badlands if you come in from the interstate, and it is a shock. The land is flat, flat, flat, and then the ground falls away into a maze of buttes, ridges and gullies striped in bands of grey, tan, red, orange and cream. The overlook sits on the rim of the Little Missouri River country, in the south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and from it you can see the layers of rock and clay running out across miles of broken land.
The stripes tell a story of time. Over millions of years, rivers laid down layers of sand, silt and clay, and swamps added beds of lignite coal. Later, erosion by wind and water carved the soft rock into the shapes you see now. Where the coal seams caught fire, sometimes through lightning, they baked the clay above into hard red rock called scoria, and the red bands that run through the canyon are the result. Some of these coal fires may burn underground for years, and the whole process is slow and ongoing. The light changes the colours constantly, and the best hours are early morning and late afternoon, when the low sun brings out the reds.
The name Roosevelt comes from the future president who came here in 1883 to hunt bison and ended up buying a ranch. He later said that he would never have been president without his time in the Dakota badlands, and the park, created after his death, preserves the landscape that shaped him. Wildlife includes bison, wild horses, prairie dogs, pronghorn, elk and mule deer, and the sky is huge, with larks and meadowlarks singing across the grass.
The riding around here is flat, open and breezy. The interstate approach is fast, but the park roads are quiet, smooth and winding, with gentle gradients and constant views of the buttes. The wind can be strong on the exposed ridges, and summer heat is intense, with thunderstorms building in the afternoon, so mornings are best. Watch for bison on the road and for rattlesnakes in warm weather.
Belfield, about fourteen kilometres away, has a petrol station and basic services, and Medora, further north, has more, so fill the tank before you enter the park. Bring water and sun protection.
Walk to the edge of the rim and look. The silence and the colours make the long drive across the plains worthwhile.