Paddling near Medora, ND

Medora sits in the North Dakota Badlands at the edge of Theodore Roosevelt National Park's South Unit, and the Little Missouri River is the defining paddling water here. The river runs north through dramatic butte-and-cottonwood canyon country, and the classic multi-day canoe route covers roughly 107.5 miles from Medora to the Long X Bridge near the park's North Unit. A popular day trip puts in at Sully Creek State Park just south of town and takes out at Cottonwood Campground — about four to six hours on the water. Water levels are highly variable and dictate everything; some years the river runs too low to float at all.