A friends group is forming to support Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The group, Friends of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, is holding an organizational meeting this coming Sunday, June 29.
Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor planted the seed for the group a few years back when she met with park supporters to see if any were interested in organizing a friends group.
"A lot of national parks have ‘friends’ groups, about 160,” Superintendent Naylor told the Dickinson (North Dakota) Press. "Yet Theodore Roosevelt National Park is a major national park unit that did not have a friends group.”
On Sunday the fledgling group will meet at Shelter 10 in Sertoma Park along Riverside Park Drive in Bismarck, North Dakota, at 6 p.m. CDT. Annual membership fees to join the group are $25 for an individual, $35 for a family, $10 for a student and $5 for the young explorers, who are children ages 10 and under.
“It’s a great opportunity to get involved,” the superintendent told the newspaper. “‘Friends’ groups in national parks range from very large groups to very small groups, but they are all helpful to the national parks in raising funds, friends and supporting events and getting people involved in the national park. We are excited to have a ‘friends’ group in our park.”
For more information, contact Joe Satrom at 701-255-3095.
Comments
I've been to over 100 NPS sites, and I have to say, Theodore Roosevelt National Park is my favorite. I put it over Denali and Yosemite which, although incredible beautiful and wonderful places in their own right, have crowding and access issues that make them trying at times. TRNP, on the other hand, is beautiful and wonderful, but it's also off the beaten path. When I visited a couple of years ago, I hiked for miles and miles and only saw a handful of other intrepid soles in the fields, forests & hills. Plenty of wildlife, clean & fresh air, absolutely loved it. Living in the crowded Northeast, I found it a perfect place to "get away from it all".
The banner picture on my blog [shameless plug] is of TR Park for that very reason.
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My travels through the National Park System: americaincontext.com
I'd have to agree with you Barky... probably my favorite too. I rode my bike around the loop road within the park and have never seen so much wildlife (in numbers and variety) in my 45 years. Going back in early August this summer and bringing along my son this time. There's nothing like the sound of bison breath outside your tent in the early morning... coyotes howling as the sun sets... and you're right -- not many people at all.
I'll chime in as well that Theodore Roosevelt perhaps takes the prize as the "hidden jewel" of the National Park System. All in one place you can experience the bison of Yellowstone, the Badlands of South Dakota, a petrified forest and meandering rivers in a beautiful, empty, landscape...