The Elkhorn Ranch was Roosevelt's most personal Badlands home, set deliberately far from any neighbour on the Little Missouri River about 35 miles north of Medora. Today the site is the third and least-visited unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park — a quiet meadow with only foundation stones to mark where the cabin stood and an interpretive panel explaining what was once here.
Reaching it takes a determined drive on unpaved gravel roads that the park warns can be impassable when wet; check at the visitor centre before setting out. For those who make it, the reward is a stretch of cottonwood-shaded river that looks almost exactly as it did in Roosevelt's photographs. Bring water, a full tank, and good shoes.