Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge

We went into Glasgow again this morning. Had breakfast at McDonald’s, ran a few errands. Tried to decide what we were going to do today. We had several options -- going east to Wolf Point, or west to Malta, or north to Canada.  While we were eating, a train went by and had a lot of PRIME cars on it.  We saw this the other day too.  So PRIME is coming to anyone waiting on orders.

We finally decided to take this gravel/road Maxness that’s supposed to take us to Fourchette Bay, which is supposed to be in the Charles Russell Wildlife Refuge area.  This is not the main route to this wildlife area, so we’re not sure what we’re going to run into.  Of course, that’s part of the adventure for Joe -- not knowing where we’re going.  As for me. I prefer a little more specific information.  We started on this road about 11:30 a.m.  Parts of these roads (there were several turns) were open range, and Joe sometimes had to encourage the cows to get off the road.  The cattle like to walk back and forth in front of us.  We had this happen off and on throughout the drive.

Antelope are a common site here -- we saw eight of them on the way into Glasgow this morning, and we have seen them off and on all day.  We also saw a few muley deer today. 

.This whole drive has been on an unpaid road, but it’s in pretty good shape. Joe been able to maintain a speed around the mid 40s. That’s pretty good for a gravel road.  In fact, it was better than some of the paved roads with potholes.

About 35 miles in on this dirt road, our terrain changed and we got into the hills.  For the birders, there are tons of birds on this road.  We don’t know what kind they are, but they are very plentiful. They seem to like feeding in the grass along the road.  We have hit 6 birds with the RV on this trip, and we were amazed that we didn't hit any today in the Jeep.  They like to fly right in front of us.

Out n the middle of nowhere, we came upon a little rest area, with a toilet, and a little pond just past it.  We needed to walk a little, and I picked up a few rocks.  I found one I liked but Joe would not dig it out for me.

The one I liked was just left of the shadow.

There was a two-track leading out of this little parking area to a pond, so of course we had to check it out.

We didn’t have a map of this route to go by so we were using the GPS in the jeep and my phone with Maps. They didn’t always agree. Joe’s instructions typically wanted us to turn on every little two-track, where my instructions kept us on the main gravel road.  We keep hoping we’re going to end up in the right spot.

We came to an intersection and the road straight ahead looked pretty chewed up, it turned out that was our road and there were two road graders right ahead of us making ridges down the middle. We had been driving on Ridge Road for a long time -- now we had our own ridge. Joe always prefers the road less traveled, and this was definitely that. 

We came past a farm with a semi, tractors,  and horses.  We felt like we were driving right through his yard.  They had a few goats too, we had not seen that before.

Less than a mile after we passed his place, we came upon 2 fences that Joe had to get out, drive through, then shut. With my bad right arm, he didn't think I could get the wire off the post, or release the emergency brake in the Jeep, so he had to do it all.

After driving for three hours, we finally saw some Buffalo on the open range -- that was encouraging because there are supposed to be buffalo at this refuge.  And the landscape started to change.  At 2:40 we got to the sign that said the Charles M Russell wildlife management area!  We had found our destination.  And it actually was a Wow.

The landscape changed from prairie and scrub brush to some trees.  

There were several campers with boats back here.  Apparently, Walleye and Sauger are the fish in this lake.  We used to catch Sauger in Kentucky Lake when our kids were young.

For once, we brought a picnic with us, so we found a shelter and soaked up the atmosphere for a short while.  After a 3-hour drive, we only spent about 45 minutes at this campground.  And we didn't see any of the elusive big horn sheep or elk that we had heard about.  We assume they don't come out until evening, and we sure didn't want to be stuck back here that late.  It was very pretty down here. The lake reminds me of Roosevelt Lake at home.  And we are going back a different way.

As we worked our way out, we caught sight of 2 osprey in a nest in the top of a dead tree.   Every time I think I see something, I say "stop" and we come to a screeching halt in this loose gravel.

Another interesting sight was this mailbox post -- encircled in barbed wire.  I guess this is one way to protect your mailbox.

Joe thinks this might be the first time we’ve ever driven 100 miles on a dirt road to get to our destination and then at least 50 more miles on a dirt road to get back to paved road. I’m hoping it’s our last time too.

But we always see interesting things, especially wildlife.  On our "different" way back, we came up on a pond with two groups of black wing tipped pelicans called American White Pelicans (I googled them).  

We also spotted a old, Lutheran church on a hill, also in the middle of nowhere, it seemed.  It was old, but well kept. 

 Then Joe spotted a big old snake in the road.  Somehow, I didn't see it so he backed up so I could see it.  He had run over it, but not killed it.  I just got a glimpse of it by the front wheel on my side, then it just disappeared.  I did not see it head for the grass on the side of the road, and Joe did not see it come out in front of the Jeep.  So I worried that we now had a snake on board somewhere -- wrapped around the drive shaft, or a tire.  He never showed up again, so I assume he crawled off into the grass very quickly, but I kept an eye out the next time I got out of the Jeep.  Joe saw a dead snake a little while later but he didn't stop.  We stopped for fuel in Malta and Joe checked around for the snake. He didn’t see any so he thinks we’re good. No blood, no snake, no nothing.

We drove about 280 miles today in the Jeep, 150 on gravel or dirt.  Way too long of a day for these old people.  We saw:

 antelope

 mule deer

 two osprey 

snake

American white pelicans 

buffalo 

birds, birds, birds

and a dead snake

We got back to the RV about 7:15, totally worn out.  But tomorrow we move on, so we will see what's ahead.

 Tuesday, June 11, 2024

In the Middle of Nowhere

I found out there was a McDonald’s in Glasgow and we needed to go there for groceries anyhow, so that was a prompt for Joe to get out of bed.  

We made a run into Fort Peck to the wildlife pasture again.  We found our dozen buffalo that we saw this last night.  

We think we saw a wolf (could’ve been a coyote, but we don’t think so) stalking a deer.  And some antelope.  

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All veterans from all branches of service, including National Guard and Reserves, can be honored on the Wall.  Any veteran who is important to a NE Montana resident can be included on the Wall regardless of where they live.  A qualified Veteran is anyone who has served at least 6 months and has been honorably discharged.  

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 Heading on into town, we saw another antelope.  

Apparently, Glasgow is known as "the Middle of Nowhere." There were signs and other items in the Chamber of Commerce office with this picture, and this was on the side of a building.

After our breakfast sandwich, we went to the Chamber of Commerce and stocked up on brochures for the area.  The girl who took care of us, Morgan, was very helpful.  She knew a lot about the routes we were interested in, and we spent a long time there.  I bought a Montana cup.   Morgan talked about the shops in town and said the residents there have to go to Billings really to do any shopping. Most people fly there. Cape Air has two flights a day from here for $39 round trip --which is probably cheaper than the gas it would take. 

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Then we went to the grocery store. They had an Albertsons here, so Joe dropped me off and went on to the car wash next door to try to get some of the mud and bugs off of the jeep.  He came in to find me at the grocery store and we finished shopping, got checked out, and he stopped to talk to a lady waiting for a transit bus as I was pushing the cart to the jeep.  But the wind blew my receipt out of the bag, so I left the cart and went to try to catch it (unsuccessful).  And then the cart started blowing away. The lady said to Joe, "oh there goes a shopping cart over there."  Joe looked up and was quite surprised to see that it was ours!  But I got it grabbed, and we got the groceries loaded in the jeep so all was well.  We wandered our way back to the RV.

We went out for an evening drive about 5 o’clock. Went back on the wildlife pasture road again. We saw several deer and antelope throughout the day, this morning and again this evening, but nothing else except that wolf this morning, and the buffs.  

The next part of our drive was Duck Creek Road -- it started out paved, but then turned to gravel. We saw one deer on this road. We drove down to one of the points on the lake. This lake would make our Lake Roosevelt at home look like a pond.    The bridge over the dam must have been at least 5 miles long.

We’ve seen that several times with the lakes up here.  The lakes around the reservoirs are enormous.  This lake, Lake Peck, was formed when they dammed the Missouri River.  It has lots of fingers and lots of different camping areas and housing developments on it.

We have been in other areas where we felt like it was big sky country, but this truly is BIG SKY COUNTRY.  You can see forever.  Very few trees.  In the open prairie (away from the lakes), the ranches are far and few between.

Side roads are also hard to find along here.  Joe turned into one that had a gate across it, and said "authorized personnel only."  This always ticks him off.  A few miles further on,  he turned into another one and we had a cow blocking the road.  That cow looked like she thought she was on patrol. It was a standoff for a while, but Joe finally forced her out-of-the-way.  We drove 3 miles down this dirt road, and saw two antelope that we spooked. They took off running, and then a deer ran across the road in front of us.

I believe this is called "attitude."

 Joe was really just getting tuned up into this road and he said this might be "our road" tonight.  But just a short while later, we ran into a sign that said "Private Property, No Trespassing."   Well, that really  ticked him off, but he did turn around, reluctantly.  I had to do some fast talking to get him to turn around.

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This is the road we were on, Joe's kind of road..

We stopped at the overlook of the spillway.  The river meanders out of the main dam.  Thie spillway is only for emergencies or just to lower the level of the lake.  Looks like they had a small leak.

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This spillway is capable of discharging 250,000 cubic feet of water per second, or nearly 25 times the normal flow volume of the Missouri River.  At that discharge rate, the water may reach speeds of 65 miles per hour as it passes the cutoff structure.  

This is the Missouri River side of the dam.  It will eventually join the Mississippi in St. Louis, Missouri. There are numerous boat launches on both sides of the dam, and our campground is full of boats.  

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Lewis and Clark are well known in this area because they came down the Missouri River in their explorations.  They are famous in our hometown, Vincennes, Indiana, as well.  In fact, the George Rogers Clark Memorial is an icon in Vincennes.  

 Monday, June 10, 2024

Heading into Montana

We got on the road at 10:10 -- a misty morning, cloudy.  It rained during the night and was very windy.  So now we are headed to Montana. We enjoyed our time in Medora, and in North Dakota.  This Medora campground had a heated pool, but we just didn’t have time to get over there and check it out. The show was great and we got to see a lot of wildlife here at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We always love to see the buffalo -- and everything else.  We pulled on the Interstate 94 just a few minutes later, and there was nothing behind us and nothing in front of us. That’s the way we like to travel.

We crossed into Montana a half-hour later, at 10:40.  This was our destination goal for the summer.  Now that we’re here, we don’t know what we’re gonna do in Montana, but we’re gonna look around see what we can find. We have reservations for the next 3 nights at another COE campground, but beyond that, we are completely open.

Speaking of open, we’re in big sky country now -- not many trees for miles. Lots of open space, and you can see forever. 

We passed probably 10 miles at least of stored cars on the railroad track on this highway 200 S. Lindsay was the only town we passed. There were frequent breaks for field access but no side roads. It went on forever.

We got on the road at 10:10 a misty morning. Cloudy it rained during the night and was very windy now we are headed to Montana. We enjoyed our time in Medora.  This campground had a heated pool, but we just didn’t have time to get over there and check it out The show was great and we got to see a lot of wildlife. We always love to see the Buffalo and everything else we pulled on the interstate 94 and there was nothing behind us and nothing in front of us. That’s the way we like to travel.

We are in Montana our goal for the summer. We cross the state line about 1040 this morning now that we’re here we don’t know what we’re gonna do in Montana, but we’re gonna look around see what we can find. 

We’re in big sky country now not many trees. Lots of open space.  Beautiful country. 

We passed probably 10 miles, at least, of stored grain railroad cars on the railroad track on this Highway 200S. Lindsay was the only town we passed through here. But these train cars went on a long, long way.  There were frequent breaks for field access but no side roads. 

We had lunch in Circle, Montana, which is about halfway on our drive today. It was a very slow lunch for just a hamburger, took over an hour. We had seen three pronghorn and a deer by the time we stopped for lunch. We saw two more antelope on the afternoon stretch, and one more when we drove in to Fort Peck for dinner.  That didn't work out -- the kitchen was closed and only the bar was open, so we went back to the RV and fixed our own.  I didn't feel great and Joe was trying to give me a break, but it didn't work out, and Glasgow was the next option, probably 15 miles further.

 In addition to several fields of cattle, we saw two big flocks of sheep. It had been sunny, but then spots of rain started hitting the windshield, which always pleases Joe because he gets his windshield washed if it rains hard enough.

We arrived at our campground about 3:30, raining again.  We are at another beautiful COE campground on the Missouri River at Fort Peck Lake.  The lake is huge, and there are a lot of campers with boats in this campground.  

Meanwhile, back in Florida, our grandson Andrew is going to a fishing camp this week.  I didn't hear how many he caught today, but here are two nice ones.

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We drove 197 miles today.  That seems to be about our norm this summer.  We will check out this area in the next two days.

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Sunday, June 9, 2024

Last trips through the park

We headed into the park about 12:30 p.m., after shopping in town for a girlfriend for Theo, having a bite to eat and getting our sodas.  Theo now has Prairie Rose, nicknamed Rosie.  This is the same shop where I bought Theo for Joe three years ago.

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And we succumbed to the taffy temptation.

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We are looking for everything today, but our main focus is going to be the wild horses. We have only seen one and we’re really wanting to see more, even the herd if possible. They’re supposed to be 200 horses in this park.  We’d also like to see an elk. They’re supposed to be 800 of them so maybe our chances are better there but they’re generally pretty elusive. 

There are several trails and lookout points to hike to.  Some energetic people made it to this lookout.

Our first sighting was, again, the buffalo.  We ran into the big herd of buffalo again, right alongside the road, in the road, both sides of the road -- lots of babies, some of them pretty fresh looking. 

Driving on, I saw a pronghorn off by himself down in a valley. We had to back up, on a curve (Joe complained) for Joe to see him because I wasn’t sure what it was, but we got a good sight.  Just past the pronghorn, Joe found the 10-mile road he had been looking for -- we went past this last night but didn’t drive back so we are going back there now and hope to something.  

It turned out that wasn’t the right road. Well, it was, but Joe read the sign wrong.  It was only a mile and led to a 10-mile trail, but we did see one giant buffalo back there. Its head was huge. He rolled over and finally stood up just as we left so all was not in vain. 

Then back on the main road, we finally saw two horses right beside the road.  This was almost at the end of the road, so we were probably within 2 miles of turning around and heading back. It took just under two hours to go this 26 miles.

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Coming back, we saw the same two horses, pronghorn antelope, and the buffalo jam. Joe had been wanting to stop at one of the Prairie Dog Towns and just sit out there with Theo and Rosie and see if the prairie dogs would come out. This has been on his bucket list ever since we were here three years ago, so today he did it.  One dog barked at him the whole time he walked across, but eventually one of them did come back out of a hole in front of him and just watch him.  Several of the prairie dogs kept an eye on him and one kept chirping, but they never ventured any closer.  The ones further away did come back out of their holes, but the ones close to him did not. The flies were bad here, probably brought on by the prairie dogs. and they were the bitey kind so we didn’t last very long.  Joe set up Theo and Rosie by one of their holes, hoping they would come out to meet their cousins.

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We spent a little over three hours on this drive and considered it productive since we saw the pronghorn and the two horses. In addition to the buffalo,  Joe got to play with the prairie dogs for a bit.  And we saw a deer just before we left the park.  We consider this a productive drive.  It's a beautiful day today, sunny, high of 75, we even got the shorts out.

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For our second foray into the park, we left the RV at about 7:15 pm. But after a stop in town for an ice cream cone, it was actually 7:50 before we entered the park. The sun was still high in the sky so we should be good. We saw the usual bison again.  But then we sighted eight turkeys.  We hadn’t seen any turkeys on this trip yet so that was a welcome sight. Then we saw a deer right by the road.

A few miles later we spotted a coyote.  Somehow, that is more exciting here than seeing them at home.

 

We got to the turnaround at exactly 9 o’clock. The same two horses were still here --this time they were on the road so we got a better picture. It’s the time of night now where all the bushes look like animals, so it’s getting hard to see.  

We didn’t meet another car on the way back until we got near town, so we must’ve been the last car to go all the way to the end.  As we got closer back to the town, we did see a few cars coming into the park, probably doing a night drive after attending the Musical.The only things we saw coming back were buffalo, which were really hard to see. One was right on the edge of the road and Joe was lucky to see him. He swerved around him, scared me to death. We got back to camp about a 9:45 but we did get to see a pretty sunset.

Tomorrow is a travel day.  And it's supposed to rain.  We are leaving North Dakota and heading for a new state.