We woke up early, with a busy and exciting day ahead of us. After a morning run (so much easier to do on flat terrain) and breakfast at a local bar/casino/breakfast joint, we packed up and headed southeast. This time, we had our first National Park to look forward to: Theodore Roosevelt National Park located in Medora, ND. As we approached Medora, still miles away, the terrain became noticeably different. Flat farmland, prairie and fields transitioned to dry desert-looking mounds with little vegetation. These mounds were not small like hills, nor large like mountains. It looked like those foam egg cartons you use to pack boxes except with various heights and spaces between. I immediately thought of the challenges that would have been posed by attempting to cross this terrain on horseback. There were small canyons between the mounds but it certainly could not have been an easy task. This area, I later came to realize, is considered badlands. As in: it ain't good farm land, it's bad land.
After dropping Piper off at the hotel and getting groceries, we returned to the National Park and made our way to the Petrified Forest Trailhead and planned to do an out and back hike. When we made our way up the rocky hill to start - we were surprised to arrive at a flat field of grass and wildflowers that went on for a surprising time. This was neither what we had seen from the road, nor from the start of the trail. Eventually, after crossing the field - the landscape returned to the desert-like not quite mound terrain but leading towards it. The tall grasslands gave way to boulders and land masses. We came to a fork in the trail, an opportunity to go left or right. The trail we wanted to go on could be a 10 mile loop if we had more time, but we have previously decided to just do an out and back. We saw hikers ahead on the left (north) path and no one on the right (south). When Alex questioned which way we should go I said: "Always go the path less traveled".
As we descended into some of the crevices and made our way further on the trail, Alex spotted a wild bison roaming ahead on the trail. We maintained our distance so we weren't quite able to identify the grandness of the beast. We sat at a vantage point above as it just chilled by a boulder ahead. When the bison continued on the trail, we remarked to ourselves about the interesting paradox of the path less traveled. We may never know what the path more traveled could have presented (they may have seen a whole herd, or nothing at all). But we do know that our path offered an opportunity to us which was amazing. I'd like to think it was because we decided to do our own thing and we didn't follow the herd (of people).
The path less travelled seems like the right choice!