Uneventful campsites don't make happy campers

 Theodore Roosevelt National Park is a quaint park nestled into the corner of North Dakota, home to rolling hills, badlands, and bison. We did not expect it to also be home to one of our most chaotic campgrounds to date. All of this unexpected hubbub tested our limits as campers in ways we haven't been tested yet. 

Our first night in TRNP was taken up by some conflict in the campsite! We knew something was up when we heard from inside our tent a man shouting about being drugged. We were confused and a bit nervous after hearing him shouting at a little boy, so we slowly scampered out of the tent to observe and possibly engage in the situation. 

The man was shouting about being drugged (his dog too) with meth, and that he needed an ambulance ASAP!!! Ten minutes later, a ranger, police officer, and a sheriff came instead. And they were asking him to leave. 

You may be curious how we learned all of this out, but we have nothing impressive to say. We walked about 75 feet away from the incident and ask people who were more gutsy (and just as shameless) about the incident. 

With that crazy event under our belts, we decided to go to bed. The next morning, we bailed on doing a 12 mile hike to see the petrified forest because of some on-and-off thunderstorms. Instead driving the scenic drive and some short hikes. That night, we cooked our dinner before the thunderstorms came back. 

We conquered the 12 mile hike the next day, and while we won the war, that trail (and the complete lack of sunscreen) caused us to lose some battles. We didn't expect the sun to come out for a big portion of our hike and have some pretty strong sunburns now. Just as we finished our hike, the rain started up again. The pools of water were almost reaching the door of our tent.

Cold soup for dinner. 

Only a bit of rain going in our tent that night, and we fell asleep quickly & planned to wake up at 3 in the morning to take our tent down when it wasn't raining. It worked perfectly!! 

Although our tent was soaking wet and we were tired from our 12 mile hike, we had a smooth and seamless experience packing up at TRNP. admittedly, leaving was the only thing that went smoothly! 

But uneventful campsites don't make happy campers