This morning we slept in until almost 8:00 am. We got up and unhooked the RV. We had asked the owners for a recommendation for breakfast, so we headed to the Four Aces Casino and Restaurant. After a hearty breakfast, we got on the road for another 4 to 5-hour drive into North Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. On the way, we took Montana 200 East. We drove from Lewistown to Jordan, Montana and thankfully Jordan had a gas station with diesel, because we pulled in on fumes – whew! After fueling up, we were on the road again. The kids watched a movie while hubby drove and listened to an audio book. I was writing this journal entry, of course. Rural Montana is very boring – the landscape is rolling yellow-tan hills now – with patches of green grass. Most of the grass and vegetation is dead from drought and there are very few towns and buildings. We saw a few cars, a few cattle, and a few horses. Oh, and it’s very windy too. The crosswinds were blowing us all over the place.
We arrived at Theodore Roosevelt National Park near the town of Medora, North Dakota. First, we stopped to fuel up and buy a few groceries. I noticed a fudge place across from the gas station, so the kids and I walked over to check it out. We’re staying at a friend’s house in Chicago on the way home, and I wanted to get him a small gift. We purchased a box of various fudge samples and hopped back in the RV to head into the park. At the ranger entrance station, the ranger noticed our University of Kentucky seatbelt covers and commented on them. It turns out that he was a Louisville Cardinals fan – ugh. We exchanged “pleasantries” (barbed insults) and entered the park, stopping at the visitor center. We stamped our passports, watched the orientation film, and asked the ranger a few questions. We also attended a short tour of the Maltese Cross Cabin – the cabin that Theodore Roosevelt built in 1883-1884. It was very interesting and we learned quite a bit about the early life of President Roosevelt, sad as it was in losing his mother and wife on the same day, and how he returned to this cabin to grieve and mourn.
After we finished at the visitor center, we started out on our driving tour of the 36-mile park loop road. We stopped at a few overlooks and some short hiking trails. We were hoping to see some wildlife at this park. One of the first interesting places we came to was Prairie Dog Town. There were hundreds of prairie dogs popping up all over the place. They were so cute! We sat by the side of the road and watched them for a while – calling to each other, chasing each other around, and diving into their burrows. We continued on the loop road, watching for bison, wild horses, big horn sheep, and anything else we might see. Near the Prairie Dog Town, we saw some unique black birds with white wings. We stopped at a short hike up to a ridgeline overlook. The park information guide noted that bison could frequently be found on this hike, but unfortunately, we saw a lot of evidence of bison (trails in the grass and bison poop), but no bison. It was a beautiful view, though, and we did see some rabbits. Driving further on the loop road, hubby was mentioning that we’d seen bison at Yellowstone two years ago, so it was no big deal if we didn’t find them this time. What he really wanted to see were wild horses. A bit farther down the road he looked off to our left and stopped the RV. A few wild horses were off on a hill a short distance away. Since they were on the driver’s side of the RV, I couldn’t get a good photo, so hubby took some video and I handed him my camera with the zoom lens on it. He took several pictures, waiting for the horses to lift their heads up. He got a good shot as one of the horses looked up, and then we continued on the road. A short distance away, we found one bison off to our right in a little valley grazing all alone. We stopped and watched him for a while, took his picture and then drove on. A bit further down the road, we saw a bunch of what looked like turkeys. It was getting late and we were getting hungry, so we finished the loop road and went to the campground.
We found our spot in the campground, leveled up and started cooking dinner. It was about 6:30 pm and the ranger presentation in the campground amphitheater was at 8:00 pm. After dinner we cleaned up, played one hand of Rook, and practiced a little softball and soccer with the kids. We turned on our generator to microwave some popcorn to take with us to the amphitheater. We walked over to the presentation and found seats. A young ranger was preparing for his talk on prairie dogs – the bottom of the food chain. The presentation was very informative and discussed the many different predators of the prairie dogs – owls and other birds of prey (including the white-winged birds we had seen earlier that I can’t remember the name of), badgers, weasels, coyotes, and even snakes. The presentation also included a description of the burrows prairie dogs make and how there are different chambers or rooms that serve different purposes. I was surprised to learn that the prairie dogs live in close families and even communities. Prairie dogs from different communities or towns tend to act aggressively toward each other, but neighbors tolerate each other and sometimes work cooperatively. The family unit is typically the strongest.
After the ranger presentation, we went back to the campsite and took a short walk down a small trail through the prairie grasses to the river behind our site. I thought maybe we’d see some wildlife near the water, but unfortunately, we didn’t. Back at the campsite, we sat at the picnic table and talked with the kids about the trip. We were sad that this was technically our last night – even though we had two more days of driving to get home, this was our last National Park for this trip. We talked about our favorite places, activities, and memories. I was surprised and impressed that my son said he’d like to do some back-country camping with his guy friends when he gets older. He was influenced by Pem and the other through-hikers we camped next to at the Glacier NP campground. We all agreed that Utah was one of our favorite places, and our daughter mentioned that she might like to attend college in nearby Arizona. She likes warm weather, although she said she loved Seattle and wants to make sure she goes to college near a big city. Our son thought he might like to work for the Park Service some time, but is still interested in engineering. His first choice is aeronautical engineering, but civil engineering for the parks might be an option as well. Hubby and I both think that working in the parks during retirement would be awesome – he wants to drive a shuttle bus, and I’d love to give tours of some of the historic places or do nature/conservation presentations.
It was getting pretty late, and we knew we had a full day of driving tomorrow, so we went into the RV to get ready for bed. I always get a little depressed when we’re at the end of our trips and on our way back home, but this park was a nice, peaceful way to end this adventure. As we fell asleep a light rain began to pitter-patter on the RV roof.
