September 26, 2024
We headed for North Dakota up highway 90 through truly beautiful pine and oak trees and drove through Sturgis. As many of you know, Sturgis is the home of the gi-normous motorcycle rally held here every year in August. You may also remember that the organizers of the rally decided to hold it in August of 2020 despite the COVID pandemic and it turned into a super spreader event. I’ll just leave it at that. The town has motorcycle themed businesses and restaurants and seems like a nice town regardless of 2020. From there we drove through Deadwood and stopped at the visitor center. The town retains some of the pioneer theme but certainly is no longer the rough and tumble place it was when Wild Bill Hickok was killed over a card game in August of 1876 after living there for only a few weeks. Eddie seemed to be really interested in Deadwood as she looked out the windows the entire time we were in the town. Typically, she lays down in her bed after just a couple of minutes, but she was sightseeing the entire time we were driving through the town.
I’m a prairie doggie, a ‘get along little doggie’, a tourist doggie. I saw lots of people in the streets. Lots of them looked dog tired.
Another note on the weather we are experiencing. In Yellowstone (less than a week ago) we had to scrape ice off the windows of the car in the mornings although it did warm up to high 60s/low 70s by the afternoon so the weather was very pleasant for these two desert rats. In South and North Dakota, it’s been in the middle to upper 90s the entire time we’ve been here! It’s about 20 degrees above normal for this time of year. But don’t worry, there’s no climate change. At any rate, we eventually arrived in Medora ND after driving through mile after mile of grasslands and cultivated hay fields. Side note: there were hundreds if not thousands of very large hay rolls in field after field. We learned these are called “ton bales” and can weigh up to 1500 pounds. Most of the hay grown in this part of the country is alfalfa and is used to feed cattle. OK, end of the educational part of the program. We grabbed a quick take-out dinner from one of the local eateries and settled in for our North Dakota adventure.
September 27, 2024
Medora is really small (pop. 121 by the 2020 census) so we decided to drive the 30 or so miles to Dickinson because we desperately needed a car wash, and it just so happened they have a Starbucks. We’re not saying Michelle is willing to go 30 miles for a Vente black tea, but we’re not saying she isn’t either.
I’ll say it. Mommy Michelle will go anywhere for tea. I don’t think it smells very good.
After stopping at a car wash, a gas station, and the Starbucks, we went to the local grocery store and bought peanut butter, jam and bread. The offerings in Medora were not as bad as in Yellowstone, but all the patios were closed for the season so dining with dog was not an option. So, PB&J it was. Refreshed and provisioned, we headed for the north unit of Teddy Roosevelt National Park. Some notes on the park. It is the only national park named for a person and it is to honor the president who was our greatest conservationist. He was passionate about preserving the great beauty and the unique wild places in our country. The north and south parts of the park are 70 miles apart and most people opt to only do the south unit of the park. Michelle read in the Nat Geo book that the north was in some ways more amazing than the south park, and we had two days to explore so we decided to do the north one day and the south the next. We’re so glad we did because the north park was truly stunning. There are so many beautiful formations carved into arresting shapes and layered with sandstone, siltstone, mudstone and volcanic ash. Some of the volcanic minerals turn into bentonite clay which, bizarrely is now all the rage in some circles in use to detoxify the body. Just a note, the FDA warns this is not necessarily safe as it can contain heavy metals harmful to humans.
Dogs shouldn’t eat it either. Looks like fun to play in, tho.
Regardless of whether it should be used on humans, it creates a wonderous effect and looks like it is melting down the sides of the park’s formations. We also saw a large herd of bison in the north park as well as hundreds of Prairie Dog burrows and dozens of Prairie Dog sentries. They are right beside the road so you can easily see them and hear their unique chirps and whistles. We returned to Medora, ate PB&J sandwiches, sent out our South Dakota blog and settled in for the night.
Again with the prairie dogs. You got the real thing here in the back seat. What the fluff?
September 28, 2024
Today’s agenda was exploring the south part of TRPN (as the locals call the park) and yesterday we noticed the only gas station in town had a convenience store that purported to sell freshly made breakfast sandwiches so off we went to sample them. They were pretty good if seriously salty (the ham must have been country ham) but they satisfied our hunger. The landscape of the south park is still really beautiful but not nearly as dramatic as the north. If you ever decide to wander up this way and explore the park, we highly recommend you make the effort to see both parts of the park. It’s truly worth it. So, what the south lacks in dramatic landscape, it makes up for it with lots of wildlife. We saw (more) bison and wild horses supposedly descended from horses that escaped Theodore Roosevelt’s two cattle farms.
Those big brown dogs just wander anywhere they want. No leases or anything!
We also saw deer and antelope although they were further away and kept to the hillsides. We drove the 22 mile road and enjoyed every minute of it. Part of the loop is washed out so it is now an ‘up and back’ drive but will once again be a loop when they get the road repaired. Medora literally sits right outside the gateway to the park, so it was a much shorter ride back to town than from the north. Tomorrow we head back to Montana for a quick overnight before we head for Idaho to meet up with our dear friend Steve Delavan.
We had Elk burgers for dinner! Don’t tell those big animals in the park. They were yummy!
Tons of alfalfa “ton bales”
Our Motel in Medora. No luxury or extras but it got the job done.
So, so many prairie dogs – their burrows take up 2% of the 70,000 acre park which for those of us who can do math is 1400 acres!
One of the amazing vistas of the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
The south unit of the park.
Wild horses right by the side of the road in the south unit.
And, of course, the ubiquitous bison strolling down the park roads.