Boondocking - Theo Roosevelt Nat. Park?

Nomad

Anyone boodocked in Theodore Roosevelt Nat. Park / Grasslands? I remember seeing a pic (I think here on the forums) of someone doing it and waking up to buffalo all around them. If so, where'd you do it.
Doesn't seem to be as clearly marked as BLM areas out west.

jkjenn

I don't believe there is any boondocking, but the Bison roam freely, so you never know where they will show up. The campsite I had was along the river and had lots of tall grass. I could easily see Bison grazing in there, but there is so much space, they generally prefer to avoid us. BTW, this is where I got rammed from behind in my Jeep by one while waiting at a Bison traffic jam.

I think the photo you saw was probably a primitive campground in Badlands NP. The Bison seem to be regulars, there.

Nomad

According the the young ranger at Theo north, you can boondock anywhere you can get into but there is private land mixed in. So far I haven't found the magic road that isn't all private.
What campgrounds did you stay at Jenn?
The photo I saw was from ND - Can't remember where I saw it though.

jkjenn

Cottonwood. The site was very large. Really, really pleasant.

Nomad

See it was back in your roughing it (pre-T@B) days and you scored a drive-thru it appears.

So, I ended up going to Theo South to see if they knew where you could boondock (dispersed camping) and there is none for campers/RVs within either Theo north or south. There is hike-in with a free permit. But, all the area between North/South is Forest Service land and they had a FS map showing where you can go and remote campgrounds.
While I was there, I decided to check out Cottonwood. One loop is drive thrus and the other is back-in. Odd numbered sites are reservable, even numbered are first come, first served. Because of the Forth, obviously all the odds were reserved - by the way, you can look at the reserved tag and still use that site on days it isn't reserved. There were just to non-reserved open and they were small. Too small for a T@B and TV. I wanted to just pluck down for a couple days so didn't take a reserved as I'd had to move tomorrow again.
There's a ton of other campgrounds around so I ventured west 6 miles and into a FS campgrounds. Only two of us here - me in one loop and the other in the other. And the best part, the "normal" rate is $6 whereas Theo is $14 ($7 senior). Whereas Theo's pads are gravel, these are big and paved. Cottonwood is roughly 6 miles from the entrance at Medora so I'm roughly the same.
So, I'm gonna relax for a couple days and then see about boondocking it in the FS Grasslands.

Nomad

Should add: TheoNorth has Verizon Cell but no data (T-Mobile has nothing). TheoSouth has Verizon LTE as does some areas of this campground.

Nomad

Another add: Quiet hours at TheoN are 8-8 whereas TheoS is the normal 10-6. Two people left (big rigs) because of the hours - couldn't fire-up their coffee makers early enough. Otherwise, there were only 7-8 campers in the whole place and quiet. I'm pretty sure it was all first-come, first-served. Buffalo roam through the campgrounds on a regular basis.