Sight · Theodore Roosevelt National Park
A Medora summer revue with horses, fireworks, and a Badlands backdrop.
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The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Theodore Roosevelt Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Theodore Roosevelt National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this area
The Coyote’s Hunting Pounce“If you see a coyote spring into the air and land in the grass, it may be hunting a mouse. Coyotes use their sharp hearing to locate small rodents, then pounce on them.”
Plays on the road 0.8 mi from Burning Hills Amphitheatre (Medora Musical) in the Parkwolf Theodore Roosevelt Tour Guide.
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“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Burning Hills Amphitheatre is the Medora Musical’s open-air home, carved into Burning Gulch just west of Medora. It seats about 2,850. I’d save it for a night when you want a full Western revue and live production, rather than another quick park stop. The annual show changes, but the format mixes popular songs and variety with live horses and a fireworks finish.
There’s free first-come parking on site. The seating bowl has a lot of stairs; wheelchair and mobility seating is on the mezzanine, with elevator access. Hearing loops and interpreter arrangements are available by request. It’s an outdoor performance, and the show runs in summer.
The stage sits below the Badlands hillside, and its storefront facades can move on tracks to open the backdrop during the show. Visitors often call out the sunset view from the upper seats. You get more than a stage-front view here: the landscape is right behind the performers.
This is a changing country-western revue, not a fixed, plot-driven musical. Some audiences love its familiar songs, humor, horses and patriotic notes; others find the patriotic emphasis or shifting format a poor fit. Check the upcoming season’s program if that distinction matters to you.
The first production at the site was Old Four Eyes, a Theodore Roosevelt drama staged in 1958 in an amphitheater cut into Burning Gulch by local volunteers, cast members and boys from the Home on the Range Ranch. It ran through 1964. Harold Schafer bought the property in 1965, and the first Medora Musical opened on July 1. Its first season drew about 25,000 people across 60 performances, with roughly 1,000 seats.
A 1992 rebuild nearly doubled the stage to 100 feet, replaced its plank seating and added an escalator; two elevators were added later. The set buildings sit on tracks, and a major 2005 rebuild gave them the storefront look that ties the show to historic Medora. The amphitheatre now holds about 2,850 people.
Concessions are available. For a more substantial meal, the nearby Pitchfork Steak Fondue is a separate dinner stop promoted with the show; its signature is steak cooked on pitchforks with sides; it’s separate from the venue concessions.
Wildlife
1,082 sightingsBisonMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
346 sightingsWild HorseMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
27 sightingsWapitiMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
45 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
87 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
162 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 8 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Theodore Roosevelt. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateMaah Daah Hey Trail — South Unit8.4 mi · 4.5 hr · 1.1 mi awayA one-way crossing through the South Unit's Big Plateau Wilderness.
EasySkyline Vista Trail0.3 mi · 10 min · 1.6 mi awayA short paved walk to a seated badlands overlook.
ModerateLower Paddock Creek Trail3.6 mi · 2 hr · 3.6 mi awayWalk through a prairie-dog town and follow Paddock Creek upstream.
ModerateBig Plateau and Ekblom Trail Loop5.4 mi · 2.5 hr · 3.6 mi awayA high plateau loop with two river crossings and badlands views.
ChallengingBig Plateau Trail1.8 mi · 1.5 hr · 3.6 mi awayA short, strenuous climb opens onto a wide grassland plateau.
ChallengingLone Tree Loop9.1 mi · 5.5 hr · 3.7 mi awayA steep loop to a spring basin and broad badlands views.
ModerateJones Creek Trail4.5 mi · 2.5 hr · 3.7 mi awayA creek-valley traverse through the South Unit badlands
EasyCCC Trail0.9 mi · 30 min · 3.7 mi awayA flat grassland path to the Jones Creek junction.
Restaurant · 0.1 mi awayPitchfork Steak FondueA pitchfork-cooked steak dinner above Medora, with a Badlands view.
Sight · 0.3 mi awayTheodore Roosevelt Presidential LibraryA half-day of Roosevelt, hands-on galleries, and rooftop Badlands views
Sight · 0.5 mi awayChateau de Mores State Historic SiteSee the preserved home behind Medora's short-lived meatpacking boom.
Visitor center · 0.9 mi awaySouth Unit Visitor CenterAsk a ranger about the South Unit loop before setting out.
Sight · 0.9 mi awayMaltese Cross CabinAn 1883 cabin that traveled from the World’s Fair to the Badlands.
Scenic pullout · 1 mi awayMedora OverlookA quick look from Medora to the Little Missouri River
Sight · 1.5 mi awaySkyline VistaA quick paved walk to a broad Little Missouri badlands view.
Scenic pullout · 1.9 mi awayJohnson's Plateau Roadside PulloffAn easy scenic-drive stop for watching prairie dogs at work.Parkwolf’s Theodore Roosevelt ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
