CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 34 km loop that starts and ends near Medora, about 33 min of riding. It goes by way of Painted Canyon, Buck Hill and Boicourt Overlook. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 11 km this is Theodore Roosevelt National Park South Unit Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Medora is a western town that exists partly as a theatre set and partly as a gateway, and both roles work. It lies on the edge of the North Dakota Badlands, beside the Little Missouri River, and it was founded in the 1880s by the Marquis de Morès, a French aristocrat who planned a meatpacking empire and named the town for his wife, Medora. The scheme failed within a few years, but a young Theodore Roosevelt arrived about the same time, hunting bison and later ranching nearby, and he later said that his time in the Dakotas shaped everything that followed. Today the main street has boardwalks, saloons and a summer musical staged in an amphitheatre.
Read the complete Medora write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Medora is where the day begins. Next is Painted Canyon.
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.
Read the complete Painted Canyon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Painted Canyon comes up about 11 km into the recorded legs. Next is Buck Hill.
Buck Hill is one of the high points on the scenic loop of the south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and from its bare knob you can see more of the badlands than almost anywhere else along the road. The land falls away to the Little Missouri River in a tangle of ridges and flat-topped buttes, the prairie rolls off in every direction to a horizon so distant that it curves, and the wind makes sure you remember that you are standing in the open. There is a small car park, a short path and a view, and that is all it needs.
Read the complete Buck Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 16 km into the recorded legs you reach Buck Hill. Next is Boicourt Overlook.
Boicourt Overlook is a pull-off on the scenic loop of Theodore Roosevelt National Park's south unit, and it gives you a long view down into the valley of the Little Missouri River. The river winds in broad loops through a floor of cottonwoods, with the badlands rising on either side in buttes and ridges banded in grey, tan and rust. From the railing you can often see bison grazing the flats below, their dark shapes small against the pale grass, and prairie dog towns scattered over the slopes.
Read the complete Boicourt Overlook write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boicourt Overlook, late in the day. Next is Medora.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Medora write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Medora. That is the ride.
Medora → Painted Canyon is 11 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Painted Canyon → Buck Hill is 5 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Buck Hill → Boicourt Overlook is 10 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Boicourt Overlook → Medora is 8 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.