People jokingly claim North Dakota does not exist Reddit discussion and many people make it as one of the last state if they are visitng all states of US. As of today, my two wishlist are Rim to Rim hike in Grand Canyon and skydiving at California. Going to North Dacota (ND), never crossed my mind. What is there to see or experience ?
I will never go there unless I have a specific reason to go there. I haven’t travelled much of US, and how can I prioritize a state which has least attraction. It was never on my mind.
Last week, I was talking with one of my colleagues, and he was telling me that his parents had just returned from Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which was the last state they had left to visit. He was proud that his parents had made it to all 50 states. The very next day after my conversation with my colleagues, my friend from ND texted me.
I am planning to leave everything and go back to Nepal in couple of weeks. I am not seeing any future here.
He used to randomly tell me that he had applied for different positions in Nepal, and that if he get a good one, he would return. I never believed him and told him, that I don’t think you would ever go back. This time, his words were serious and he shared his tentative plans with me. I believed him. I thought to myself, I might visit every state eventually, but ND, Why would I even go there if there is nothing and no one? This is the perfect timing, I need to go, even to meet my old friend.

And it became one of the best weekend – long drive, windy camping, but deeply relaxing days.

We have known each other since undergrad. I think, the last time I met him was in 2015, and now it’s 2026. We talked about everything from daily routines to seeking new experiences, from spirituality to Darwinism, from materialistic to religious life, from lazy days to backpacking adventures. We reflected on how our circle of friends has changed over time. He encouraged me to start writing. As a skilled science communicator, he is well-known for sharing scientific ideas with the general audience. Professionally, he is now a wildlife ecology research specialist. I told him I would definitely write about this trip, but I still don’t know how or what exactly to write. Here is my draft:

Early start
I traveled from Fayetteville, AR to Fargo, North Dakota. I planned to start early and reach to his place in the evening. I started driving super early – around 3 am. Yes, you got it right, I wrote 3 am. Honestly speaking, I woke up at that time and realized I had not set an alarm. And I couldn’t fall back asleep because my mind started to over-think what if I turn off my alarm in sleepy mood and wake up at the regular weekend time of ~10ish am. And anyway I did not feel sleepy. So, I decided to just get up and leave. I made some coffee, got ready, and started driving. I did not have much to pack, so it was easy to leave quickly.
It was so interesting to see some of the police vehicles at the corners waiting for the speeding trap. May be they were waiting for some college kid who was drunk for the whole night, hurrying rushing to home before the new dawn in the morning starts. I saw atleast two vehicles even before entering i-94. I smiled and continued. It was so interesting to see police vehicles waiting at the corners for a speed trap. Maybe they were waiting for some college kid who had been drinking all night, rushing home before dawn. I saw at least two vehicles even before entering i-94. I smiled and continued driving.

Long drive
The drive itself was long but easy and straight, drive i-49 and then i-29.
I spend some time in the Kansas City, MO and then at Linkon and Omaha in NE. The weather acted terrible, mostly after NE. I think it was after somewhere in South Dakota (SD), it started pouring heavily. At one point, I thought it would be nice to drive with my window slightly open. I think I was going ~75mph, with driver’s side window open and I suddenly heard a strange noise. Then my window stopped working.
It froze halfway. I could not open it nor close the window. The window was half open. At first, I felt fun but soon the wind and rain became too intense, and I started getting wet. I took one random exit and tried to fix it by pushing and pulling the window but it made the things more worse. The window came out of its frame. I was left holding the glass, completely out of its place, the door frame. I had no idea what to do and the rain and wind was blowing like crazy. Somehow, I managed to secure/hold it temporarily in the door frame and continued driving. Finally, I reached at his place at around 10 pm.
I told him that my window is not working properly and that I was worried leaving the window open overnight because it might be unsafe, someone might do something with the car. But he assured me that it would be fine, I trusted him. Parked in the roadside, with window half open. The next day, the window was still half open, and nothing had happened to the car. I felt relieved, at least for a moment.

Window hour
The next day, temporary way to fix the window failed. The motor that holded the window, that helps to open/close the window was not working, and the window would not stay in its place at all. At that point, the car essentially had no functioning window. It was wide open, all the time.
I asked him if he knew some mechanic, but he did not. I went to Firestone, but they had a waiting list until the end of the following week. They told me I would need to replace two parts, but the necessary component, the window motor holder, or something similar, was not available anywhere in Fargo, ND. I would have to go to Minnesota to fix it.
I was not sure what to do.
We laughed it off, blamed our old cars, and decided to continue the trip anyway.
Even though his car was a newer model than mine, it had more issues. Renting a vehicle was out of our budget since I was a broke student and he was trying to save money to start a new family. We all had our priorities.
It will be fun, driving at 80 mph with an open window – I said.
He replied, North Dakota is safe, no need to worry about anything being stolen from the car while we are away.
We headed toward Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

We were driving 80mph, the window was open. We had lots of things to catch up. We felt like we were shouting at each other just to share small details. The sound of wind was feeling crazy.
It was fun, in some way, at least until we stopped at Walmart. Before reaching Walmart we had stopped in the rest area along the highway. We felt safe leaving the car with its window open, but at Walmart, I did not feel safe. One of us had to stay with the car just to make sure that there were no unintentional event.
Who knows what could happen.
While he went to pee and buy some foods inside, I started searching for a quick fix. I came across a video that suggested using a spatula to pull the window up, and secure it with duct tape. Luckily, my friend managed to pull the glass up from deep inside the door. We taped the window glass in its place, and after that, the drive felt much safer and silence.

Outlook
Nowadays, people often name places after themselves or even build statues in their own name. In contrast, I found it especially meaningful that a national park was named to honor President Theodore Roosevelt. A bit of googling made me realize that in 1883, Roosevelt traveled to the Dakota Territory to hunt bison.
Later, as president, he established the United States Forest Service (USFS) to help protect wildlife and public lands. As a young man from New York, his experiences in this wilderness might have played a key role in shaping his lifelong commitment to conservation.Years afterward, this Theodore Roosevelt national park was named in his honor in recognition of his efforts to preserve natural resources. My first glimpse of the park was from the Painted Canyon Visitor Center, located at an i-94 rest area, and the view was absolutely stunning. Now, I wanted to go deeper into the wild landscape.

Endurance
We camped at Medora Campground, and I was quite fascinated by small Medora town that we saw on the way to campground. It was lively small downtown, people were out enjoying themselves at bars and local shops. People were shouting, walking on the streets. Cowboy hats, wild west style dresses, and it had all the energy of a small vibrant city. We were happy to see it from our car. We told ourself that if we get time after setting up the camp, we should definately come back.
He finihsed setting up camp around 9 p.m. He had been doing it multiple times, so it was easy for him. I just watched him and nodded yes to his sentences. Finally, we decided to go to a nearby liquor store to grab a few bottles of beer. But as we reached there, everything was closed. The vibrannt small Medora downtown area was silent. There was not a single person around. It felt surreal, just moments earlier the place was vibrant, and now it was completely silent.

We could have driven another half hour to reach a nearby Dickinson and find some beers, but we returned to camp empty-handed. Although we were driving and didn’t have to walk a single mile to reach to next liquor store, we hesitated to drive half an hour despite our energy. We came back at the campsite, and we started talking just like a bear in a bedtime story where the grape becomes bitter just because he didn’t get it. We started joking around and telling that beer is not good for health. Our conversation drifted from chasing fun to saving vital numbers required for the smooth running of our body. We started comparing our LDL, cholesterols and so on and realized we were both hovering just below the threshold of being a chronic disease and starting medication. We laughed at ourselves. Both of us were acknowledging the change in our strength and were silently trying to address it, but we hadn’t been quite successful, at least I was much further away from a defination of the perfect health.
We remembered about the hikes we had done together back in Nepal. During one hike, we climbed from around 1,200 meters to 4,300 meters in a single push. It was raining, and we were climbing an almost vertical mountain, with of slope ~80 degree. We started early morning and made to the top of that mountain Gosainkunda in the evening. Although, night was scary for me, it was nice attempt. We talked about another trek where more than 60 leeches clung to his legs within an hour. I don’t remember the name of that location but I remember the bloods though his legs. Back then, we were full of energy and fearless. And now here we were, reflecting on our health, even hesitating to drive less than half an hour, across flat land.

Parking
The next day we drove though the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Although he had been there multiple times, he was enjoying the view and was scanning for the birds. For me, the landscape was fascinating. It reminded me of the Inner Terai belt of Nepal. The landscape most likely formed by the continuous soil erosion, and it looked interesting to me. The exposed different layers/horizons of the soil/rocks left behind by the wind/water erosion added unique beauty to the landscape.
It was interesting for me to observe the landscape but I would not go there multiple times, once is enough for me. Personally, I don’t have desire or the enthusiasm to count the birds or any animals. I am happy that I visited, but if I have chances I would prefer exploring to new places than returning there again. Having said that, it was fabulous place and experience. As I am writing thsi, I am wondring, what it would look like when there is snow, may be few of few icnes only

Home
Apart from the landscape, the park was home to deer, wild horses and bison. Athough I am not sure what wild horses would look like but the one that we saw were not anything like wild to me. My friend was telling me that these horses were re-introduced in this location. But why are they calling these horses as wild? I also enjoyed watching small black tailed praire dogs. For me, they were incredibly cute and looked like a small family living together. I had seen them in documentaries, and I had imagined them to be much bigger in size. As we were observing the landscape and those small praire dogs, we saw some people extremly near to them and trying to listen to their sound, as if they could understand their voice and interactions. It was disappointing, to see some people getting too close to their homes, possibly trying to touch them. Honestly, I also had desire to hold them in hand and talk to them, but I guess they are not my friends :).
After few meters drive inside the national park, we saw few bison. They were only a few meters far from the roadway. Personally, I didn’t find them as large as I had expected. I wished to feel the texture of their fur and skin but they are truly wild animals and might react aggressively if approached. I don’t know but I don’t wanna try.

The bison at the State museum seemed much larger. Maybe their shape and size might have changed with time, but I didn’t try to verify that. Instead, I was more interested in learning how people in the past used bison skins to build homes (tipis) and the strategies they used to hunt them. The museum had some fascinating images and stories.
I am not really a museum person. I like art museums (or art collection centers, as I prefer to call them) to some extent, but history museums are not for me. I easily get tired of them. I feel I have a lot to learn from my own mistakes and life experiences. Diving deep into someone else’s past does not appeal to me. History, especially community histry, for me, is like water under the bridge. It is already gone, and there is no need to think much about it. Even so, I respect history and the people who have put their effort to bring society to where it is today. My friend had a strong interest in history. He encouraged me to learn more about how local tribes shaped the culture and lifestyle of the region. I got tired after a quick walk through the museum. Still, I saw detailed information about tribal life and how central bison were to it. I also realized that ND holds strong cultural value for Native communities. Visiting the museum helped me understand how their role shaped the region’s traditions and identity.

Native
I still don’t know which term is more appropriate: Is it Native American, American Indian, Indigenous, or Aboriginal or First Nations. I find myself struggling to choose the correct word. Please correct me if I am wrong, I think native is preferred as it is short and simple, while indigenous is used in more broader context, and American Indian is a legal term defined in the US laws. My friend was suggesting me to consistently use Native American word. I tried to challenge his idea but I was not, and still is not sure of myself, so I accepted his perspective. He explained the reasoning behind it, but I am sorry, I have already forgotten the details. There were few tribal nation in the area. I was fortunate to go to xx to see the xx. Living in Fayetteville, AR with strong historic native presence and seeing some of the historic preservice in ND has made me realize that I should learn more about the Arkansas First people and Cherokee Nation that is not far from my area.

Drill
There was a lot of gas drilling along the road. I used to believe that gas drilling involved massive structures and showed obvious signs of pollution. However, when I saw them, they were small structures with minimal—or almost no—smoke coming from the source. I was surprised, and I wanted to understand the science and media coverage behind climate change and drilling. How much of this is driven by the current economy? Some of the drilling structures seemed so small that it did not even make sense to me. How much do they actually produce? How is this collective effort influencing the underground environment and the regional landscape? Is it really making a difference? Likewise, on the way to ND may be around SD, I had seen several wind turbines, but here in ND, I did not see wind turbines, but just more drilling. What is going on here? Is it a priority for the state? Is the economy being balanced? There were so many questions in my mind, but my friend was busy scanning for birds, so I kept them to myself.

Conditional
Staying at the Sakawas campground was more memorable for me. I flet like staying at Chitwan. There was lake nearby and we were camping at the nearest possible distance. The place was few meters far from the xx. I really liked the location. But the wind was so bad that my friend was not able to sleep proprely. I woke up just before sunrise to see the sunrise but it was dark from early monrning.
The weather was getting bad. The forcast was not good, especially for the evening. We left that place and stated to retrun back to Fargo. On the way, we stopped at xx state park. I am alwasys fascinated by the Taxodium species. I wonder how they survived so long and so many years ago. In the northern part of the national park there were the remains of the tree but we were not able to reach there.

Reverse engineering
While we were enjoying some of the state park near to the Theodore national park. There was forcased that it would be thunderstorm in the area after three hours. We planned accourdingly. Thankfully, we were able to get back to fargo on time we avoided the thunderstorm.
I had plan to drive back to AR, early next day. There was forecast of heavy rain with thunderstorm in the morning. I thought, if I start my driving early morning, I can drive back to AR within a daylight. I didn’t want to stay another night in the mid section. The thunderstorm was about to start at 7 am and I started my driving at 6am. It was fun running away from the storm. Later my friend was telling me that there were snow as big as snowball in the area. I was punched by the gust of wind and even affected the speed of the car for multiple time. At one point, I felt like a brust of cloud hit directly over me with a gust of wind. I felt so vulneratble that I could not see anything in front or me and my car shifted/floated its position a bit and almsot loose its track. I but thankfully I left the area early. Here is his blog about it ()

Six seven
I have been to his home in Nepal, so I know that he is not usually a good cook. However, on the first day I arrived at his apartment, he had cleaned the place and prepared a delicious meal. He told me that he had made it himself for me, and it was finger-licking good! :) I suppose people change when their circumstances change.
And, I am not sure what I should write about. Should I write about how our tastes and life decisions change after a decade?
e talk occasionally about all sorts of random things, and this trip came together just as randomly. I wanted to get out of my apartment and he wanted to go for birdwatching. We had a reason to meet and go somewhere. During our two-night camping trip in different locations, he set up the camp very easily. He had most of the necessary equipment and had camped many times before, so the process was quick and smooth. Should I write about freedom and purpose instead?
After sharing all these things, I am still wondering whether it would be a good idea to write about how changing environmental conditions are forcing tribal communities to adapt. How media influences our outlook towards life and mititation strategies? Seeing xx at xx made me reflect on our actions and on how future generations may look back on us. Should I write about that?
I am not sure, so I will leave it as it is and let the reader decide.



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