Things to Do Near Medora

While the actual town of Medora really only offers enough to entertain for one day, there are a few other things to do in the area that makes at least a one night stay worthwhile. Two things nearby of interest that relate to the founding of Medora are the de Mores Packing Plant and the Chateau de Mores. For an evening thing to do there is the Pitchfork Fondue Dinner and the Medora Musical. For a nature experience you can venture into the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. A morning drive through the park is especially great for viewing animals.

Quick Tips:

Plan for the evening Pitchfork Fondue and Musical t be on a different day from a morning drive through the park if possible. The best way to do it is to do the morning drive one day and the the dinner and musical the next night.

Best Way To Get Around:

You pretty much need your own car or a rental to get here and around here. Depending on where you are stay, you may be able to get shuttle to and from the Musical.

The Medora campground is located right outside of the town of Medora near the entrance to Theodore National Park. The campground offers sites to hook up trailers/RVs. There are also sites for tent camping. Additionally if you do not have a trailer/RV or do not want to tent camp there are also cabins.

We stayed in a small cabin. There were five of us and it worked out well. There was one small room with a queen bed. Two couches in the living room that could be laid down flat to each make a single bed. There was also a small loft area with a queen sized blow up mattress. The loft area was only a little bigger than the mattress, but it did at least have a nice light in it. Overall the place was well cooled once we turned on the air-conditioners, except the loft that remained warm until after the air-conditioner had been on all night.

The cabin also had a small kitchen with a fridge, microwave, and sink. No dishes or anything, though, so if you plan to use you will need to bring some. There is also a bathroom with a walk in shower. They provide plenty of bed linens and towels for the cabin.

The campground has a small camp store, which is the same place you check in. You can get some basic pantry food items, cold drinks, and ice here. There is also a pool that can be used.

The name for the dinner comes from how they cook the steaks. The steaks are put on pitchforks and then cooked in big pots. This dinner takes place every night before the Medora Musical show. The line can get quite long before they start serving. You can avoid it to some extent if you arrive a little after they start serving. There does pretty much end up being a line the whole time they serve, though, because they do not serve for that long.

The main part of the meal is the steaks. I think they also offer hot dogs for kids. For vegetarians (like me) it pretty much is a horrible place to eat. They do have a little salad area and baked potatoes, but the variety is pretty slim pickings. The meal includes lemonade and you can purchase beer and soda if you want. For dessert they had brownies.

Personally I found the whole thing worthless to go to. I could have gotten much better food for a whole lot cheaper and faster at any place in town. If you are in to eating steak you may enjoy it, but be warned most steaks re very cooked with little to no pink inside.

We left our cabin at the Medora Campground right outside the entrance to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park at 6am to go for a morning drive through the park. I am a morning person, so I was totally game for doing this, although I was kind of tough to do since we had done the Musical the night before. If you are not a morning person, but want to see animals then you really should force yourself to do this maybe starting at 7am instead of 6am. Even if you do not do a drive through in the morning you can see the beautiful scenery later in the day and perhaps a few animals, too.

The first animals we came upon were Prairie Dogs in one of their Prairie Dog Towns. It is fun to watch these guys for a while. If you are into photographs like me, then a zoom lens is great for getting close ups of them here.

Besides Prairie Dogs the animals we saw the most of were buffaloes. We saw one walking alone in the road in front of us. When we went past him he stopped and I got a funny photo of him with his tongue out. I also liked him because he was walking the right way in the middle of the right lane. We also saw a whole herd towards the end of our drive and had to stop while they were crossing the road. The herd was fun to watch with them taking turns to roll in the dirt.

On our drive we saw several does and their young as well as a few deer. We also saw some turkeys and small group of mustangs. Basically we saw the major animals here, except Elk.

The Medora Musical is played out in an outdoor amphitheater as the sun is setting and night sets in. The music played and sung is pretty much exclusively country. I love country music and actually found this a tolerable show. You must understand that it being tolerable is a big thing coming from me. I really do not enjoy going to shows of any kind including concerts of my favorite musicians, but I can honestly say I'm actually glad I went to this, however I would not personally go again and I doubt there will ever be a show I want to attend more than once.

One great thing about this show besides the great country music is that it tells a story as it goes. The main story line is about a woman coming home to Medora to open a dance hall. While most of the songs do not actually tell the story, they are placed into the plot very well to go with the current scene. If you often listen to country, then you will likely recognize many of the songs.

The main things I did not like were the intermission and the featured guest performance in the middle of the show. The show is just not long enough to need an intermission. For our show the guest performer was a comedian. It was not too bad, but it also made the show go longer than it needed to be.

The Amphitheater has a snack bar similar to what you would find at a movie theater. They have awesome popcorn as well as candy and soda. There is also a gift shop here that sells Medora Musical memorabilia. You can get autographs here and a few other places around the amphitheater from the cast after the show.