Saturday, June 8, 2024

North Unit of Park and Medora Musical

This town is really humming this weekend, lots of action on the main street.  We went to breakfast at a little cafe part of a strip mall, and there was a candy shop at the top of the stairs.  I was fascinated by the taffy machine, but I didn't buy any.  Yet.

After breakfast, we headed to the North Unit of this park.  It is a 63-mile drive back up Hwy. 85.  Along the way we saw 3 pronghorn antelope, and coming back, we saw 2 more.  None in the park, but we did see 2 deer, crossing the road in front of us.  

We were met at the Visitor Center by 2 welcoming buffalo greeters.  The one on the road did not look very happy with his assignment.

About 2 miles in, we saw a small herd.  Most of them crossed the road while we waited.  They were in no hurry.  My video I took didn't turn out.  But the second one did, it had a buffalo running to catch up.

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This park is a strange combination of towering canyons and cliffs, and grassland.  

This park has bighorn sheep, and we scanned the canyons constantly looking for them but never did see any.  This was a nice viewpoint.

This is what Joe was seeing.

There are a few spots along the way where the river below can be seen.  At the turnaround, there is a good view of it, snaking through the valley.

Our most excitement here was watching a young buffalo chase a pheasant.  There was a partial fence and they were coming to the corner from opposite directions.  When they met at the corner, it startled the buffalo, and he jumped.  Then he started chasing the pheasant.  It jumped up, which is the only time we got to see it. Too far away for a picture, and it happened too fast.  But we saw lots of buffalo scattered throughout the park -- sometimes small herds, and sometimes just 1, or 2, or 3.  

Our next venture was the Medora Musical.  This is in an amphitheater right outside of town, on top of a hill. I think this is the 58th year of the Musical, and it was very enjoyable.  It is mostly about Teddy Roosevelt, who spent a lot of time here before his presidency, but in addition, the show is very patriotic, very colorful, and the talent of singers and dancers was awesome.  They have a new "Teddy Roosevelt" this year, and the Rough Riders appeared on top of the Kettle Hill in a shootout.  

Teddy arriving by stagecoach.

Teddy and Emma Murphy as "Alice" hosted the event and performed in it, singing and dancing as well. 

They invited all the kids to come on stage and participate in a song.  That was fun, and there were a lot of kids there.  The kids had a good time with it.

Sherrif Bear (didn't quite get him in photo) and Prairie Rose also participated.  

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At the end there were fireworks.  The show lasted about 2 hours, and the venue was very close to our campground.  And luckily, there were escalators, and elevators, to get us to our seats.

This is why we came to Medora, and it was well worth it.  A very entertaining evening.

 June 7, 2024

Arriving Medora, ND

Although this was a really nice campground, we did not take advantage of it. We pulled in, parked, and pulled out the next morning. We didn’t drive around any, although we’re right on the river.  As we left, we took pictures of the fish hatchery and the dam and the beautiful Lake Sakakawe which is huge.  It is fed by the Missouri River.  

 Here is the dam.

We passed the fish hatchery on the way out.  We should have explored that, but we didn't.

 I sat outside at the picnic table for a little bit this morning. The sun was shining when I sat down, but then it clouded over -- it was in the 50s. I got to see one prairie dog running. There were two guys spraying the grass, I assume for bugs, but all they were doing was stirring them up, and they were bad when we were hooking up.  This campground is right off the highway we were traveling, and it was it well signed.  This COA is at Fort Pick, and I would highly recommend it.

The campground filled up a lot overnight.  

No wind today, a welcome change from yesterday. It’s a little bit overcast. Two pronghorn antelope just crossed the highway in front of us. That was nice to see. Saw some fields of potatoes planted today. 

Potatoes.

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And we saw a small herd of buffalo. We don't know if they were free range or on private property, but who cares. Buffalo are buffalo! I talked to Theo this morning. I asked him if he saw some of his cousins. He's looking forward to the next stop.

We saw an open pit coal mine with an enormous drag line working it.  In the photo is a big, yellow dump truck that looks like a matchbox truck next to the drag line. (Remember, you can enlarge the photo by touching it.)

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And 2 deer.

This part of North Dakota must be rich with oil. The first jacks we saw, there were 2 side by side, and Joe said they were the biggest he had ever seen. Then we saw a triple, and then 4.

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We also saw two antelope along the road.  

We stopped for lunch in Bellfield which is about 15 miles from the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, our destination for the next few days.  This restaurant was called "Trapper  Kettle" and had lots of stuffed animals on display.  This one was really nice, a bear (I can never resist) and a caribou.  I thought it was an elk but Joe read the sign.

As we approached Medora, the landscape changes from grasslands to canyons, similar to the Grand Canyon.  It was really a shock the first time we came here, in 2021.  But it's beautiful. 

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In town, we met the horse and buggy with its tourists.  Joe said we should do this, since we are not walking very good.

About 4:45 (time change here), we headed into the Park.  Our first encounter was with Theo's relatives, the prairie dogs.  Joe thinks what I saw yesterday were chipmunks instead of prairie dogs because they seemed smaller than these, but I'm not sure of that.  This drive is 26 miles, and has a few side roads.  We took a couple but will save the rest for later.  But we had a very successful ride.  In addition to hundreds of prairie dogs, we saw:  a wild horse in the river (too far away for a picture), 

we found the buffalo herd, this guy was playing King of the Mountain.

Lots of babies in the herd.  We guessed the herd size was about 100.  We saw a few scattered around further along on the drive as well.

I think we saw a total of 4 deer.

We think these must be coyotes.  We saw one earlier chasing a big black bird, and I thought (hoped) they were all wolves, but we read later that there are no wolves or bear (predators of the buffalo) in the park, so we will settle on coyotes.

And a big pronghorn.  

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We talked to a lady out looking for wildlife and she said there were about 50 wild horses at this one place  last night where she was "parked."  We only saw the one in the river, but will try another time.  We have our big Musical Saturday night, so maybe Sunday night we will go out a little later and see if we can find them.  We were very lucky to have run across the herd of buffalo.  They were off a side road, which we just happened to choose.  Love seeing the buffs!!!

While we were eating dinner back in town, a train went by and I think it was pulling all oil tankers.  Confirming our assumption that this area is oil-rich.  

We are happy to be back here, We love this national park.  It has 3 sections which we toured all three last time.  Not sure if we will make them all, since we are only here for 3 days, but we will keep our eyes peeled.  And we are really looking forward to the Musical.

 June 6, 2024

Moving on to Downstream COE in Hazen, ND

Well, we had a "first" last night -- we ran out of water in the RV.  Not 100% but enough that we were having a hard time getting any water out of the faucet .  We had enough to wash our face and make coffee this morning, but that was about it.  When we filled at our last stop, it was so slow filling that Joe quit before it was full. He thought he had about 3/4 of a tank, but then we stopped along the way for him to go to the bathroom and we were parked at an angle and water poured out the whole time we were parked, so I don’t know how much that took it down but anyhow, the pump wouldn't shut off, we had to shut it off by hand last night.

We had to fill at the dump station as we were leaving this morning which we hadn’t planned on doing, and again it was really slow.   He put in maybe a half a tank at the most and we thought we would have water at the campsite tonight so the plan was to fill up then.  While he took on water this morning, I picked up a few pinecones. 

The wind is really bad today. Joe is having a hard time getting the motorhome up to 50 mph.  And the wind is supposed to go on all day. We traveled pretty well west all day so it was a long day. We’re seeing a lot more farm ground in North Dakota than we saw in Minnesota. Minnesota was mostly forest and rocky hills but here we’ve got a lot of flat ground and a lot of fields planted.  If it’s not a ditch, it’s planted. We have also seen a lot more cattle than in Minnesota.  While he took on water this morning, I picked up a few pinecones. Our speed today with the wind ranged between 45 and 55 miles an hour -- made for a long, slow day.

The wind is awful. Joe said this may be the worst we’ve ever driven in.  An oncoming semi flashed its lights at us and so Joe started looking around and could see the side compartment door outside had blown open, even though it was locked. We pulled over and he went out to shut it, could hardly get the door of the RV open for the wind and then he could hardly get back in because the wind was blowing the door shut before he could get in.  My phone said we had wind of 24 mph with wind gusts up to 42, but the wind gust were pretty much constant. The wind keeps getting stronger -- now it’s 27 miles an hour with 44 mph gusts. Not a fun driving day.  But we have to keep going because we have an agenda now -- we have reservations for about the next week, starting tonight, so we have to keep on the move today. We made 115 miles in 2 1/2 hours -- slow going in this wind. We took State Highway 200 almost all the way across North Dakota.  Fortunately, even though it’s mostly a two-lane, it’s not at all busy and on a windy day like today it was nice to not have to fight the traffic on the interstate.   We went through very few towns on this highway. Most of them were a mile off of the road, which was nice. We crossed the Continental divide 3 times on this road. That doesn’t make sense since we’ve been going due west.  Joe said we are going straighter than it is.

There wasn't a lot to see, except fields and flooded areas, whether regular ponds or floods in fields we didn't know.  I did see this one church ahead that looked significant, standing all alone.

We had a few dust storms again.

There were lots of cattle herds today.  This group was clustered together near the road, trying to protect themselves from the wind.

White-capping again, not sure if this is a pond or just a flooded field.

We reached our destination about 3:00, 4 1/2 hours of hard driving.  The campground is lovely, and a welcome site.  But again, no water at the campsite, so he filled up on the way in.  There is water throughout the park, just not at campsites.

These COE campgrounds have really been nice, but this one is exceptional.  Very open, very roomy campsites.  

And Joe has one of his favorite critters rustling through the grass.  Our mascot, Theo, will be pleased.

We traveled 194 miles, a little more than we had expected. We are about 70 miles north of Bismarck, and a little west.  It was sunny and in the low 70s, but so windy we couldn't enjoy that.  But we did sit outside on the picnic table for a little while -- with the wind, the bugs were not out.  We are only here for one night, then we move on to Medora, ND for a few days.  We will continue on Hwy 200 to U.S. 85, where we will turn south and head to Medora.  I think tomorrow is supposed to be 125 miles, and no wind predicted.l

 June 5, 2024

Valley City, North Dakota

We were both tired this morning so we are planning a light day.  I did get a couple of pictures of our campground.  It is much different than our last one, which was also a COE.  That one was more open, much busier, with campers and boats passing our site all the time, shuffleboard court, horse shoes, etc.  And a basketball court right behind our RV that was busy from 7:00 a.m. on.  This one is very woodsy.  The campsites are secluded in the trees and very private.  Both had beach areas and playgrounds but the other one had several shower houses. There is a restaurant on the other side of the lake here, and private residences over there also.

We had a slow morning. It took forever for me to finish the blog but after breakfast and showers, we finally headed back to Valley City, with the laundry. The laundromat here, an old Maytag one, had half the machines out of order. It was clean enough but everything was just old. We got our wash out of the first machine, but the door on the second washer wouldn’t open. I thought it was going to hold our clothes hostage but I guess we just didn't wait long enough because I finally heard the release click and was able to open the door. In the meantime, Joe was wandering around looking for someone to go to battle with over our load of clothes. But we finished up there and drove around the small town. We were on the search for pie but the only bakery we found was self-serve and only had a few bars of some kind. But we were half a block from a thrift store (another one of my hobbies, or addictions Joe would say,) so I walked down to it. Joe drove the jeep down but he did come in and shop with me. We bought a few things. Giving up on pie, we found a Dairy Queen and treated ourselves before heading back to the RV. 

I liked the door handles at this Dairy Queen.  I haven't seen them before so I don't think they are regulation decor.

Drove home through a dust storm -- didn't expect that up here in very wet North Dakota. Anywhere there was a freshly plowed field, visibility really dropped until we got back to trees or fields with crops already planted. Wind gusts of 42 mph. Glad we only had to go 12 miles. 

One poor farmer was trying to work his ground, but the wind was vicious.  He was stirring up a lot of dust but it was going the other way from us.  I'm sure these farmers are anxious to get their fields done, but this was tough farming.

There is a wind farm right across the road from our turnoff.  They must lock them down in high winds because none of these were turning, although we could see more in the distance that were turning, so we don't know.

Joe decided to explore the road across the lake from us.  We can see campers over there.  Apparently, that is all private land and there were 2 rows of campers and houses, with great views of the lake.  And speaking of the lake, it was seriously white-capping today.  There were no boats out there in this wind.

We got back to the RV just after 5:00.  With our late treat, we didn't have dinner until about 7:00, but that was enough activity for today.  We were both still tired from yesterday, and tomorrow we move on.

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