RV Travels in Europe and North America
Travelintiger
Travels in the Dakotas.
Today we headed over to Tioga ND where Ron has been consulting more or less full time for the past year. We will be spending the next week in Tioga with Ron working and Ton getting her first experience of small town North Dakota life.
The next morning we headed over to the north unit of the park which is about 60 miles away. We enjoyed the drive over. The land in the north unit is very different than the south, and we concluded it was overall prettier than the south unit.
When we finished with the park we were looking for a place we can spend the night on Lake Sakakawea. Lake Sakakawea is the third largest man made lake in the United States and is formed by damming the Missouri River. Keeping with the Sakakawea theme we decided to stay in Lewis and Clark SP. When we arrived at the park we found that we were the only people staying in a campground with 200 sites. We spent some time exploring the lake shore where we found a group of three very hardy fishermen as it was quite cold and blustery.
We headed over to Theodore Roosevelt National Park for the day. It is the only National Park in North Dakota. While the park is open year round, as you can imagine the visitation drops off considerably during the winter.
There are two units to the park both along the valley of the Little Missouri River. The south unit has a badlands type feel similar to the Badlands NP in South Dakota. We toured the park and enjoyed the views and had a chance to see Bison and Deer. For the night we stayed in the parks only campground. Surprisingly the camp ground was pretty full given the high temperature for the day was 36 degrees, and the low was forecast in the 20’s.
Today the highlight of the day was Custer State Park in SD. Ton noted that we were only 30 miles from the park and it had some spectacular views and animals to view.
Enroute to the park and we did a drive by Mt. Rushmore but decided not to stop as we got a couple of pictures from the highway and the whole thing felt a little too Disneyland for us. On the way out though we saw a mom and baby mountain goat right by the road.
Going into Custer State Park on the Needles Highway we saw a sign saying low/narrow tunnel, 10’6” high and 9’ wide. I told Ton we were going to test the accuracy of Marks height measurement, we made the tunnel easy, but later came upon another tunnel surrounded by cars taking pictures of the entrance. This one was marked 12’ high and 8’6’ wide. We pulled in the mirrors and squeezed thru. Today was one of the days when the Tiger concept really proved itself.
As we drove thru the park we spotted a lot of Pronghorns which in South Dakota have a little different coloring than the ones we saw in Oregon earlier. Later we saw some “wild burros” that were pretty much tame and great beggars. The scene with the Burros walking right up to cars and sticking their noses in to get food reminded me of old pictures you saw of Yellowstone with Bears begging by cars. I guess that is the difference between National Parks, and State Parks. As we were leaving the park Ton commented that we did not see the large Bison herd that is resident in the park. Just as she finished saying that we came around a corner and ran into a herd of about 100 Bison using the same road to move from one pasture to another. After about twenty minutes of integrating ourselves into the Bison herd they finally got to where they were going and left the road. Happily Ton got some nice closeups of Bison as we moved with the herd.
Today was our furthest point east on this trip. Ron has always wanted to see the Badlands NP. But before that we had quite a storm last night. Wind gusts around 40 mph and rain and lighting. We got a little concerned when the loudspeakers on the Airforce base came on and told all personnel to take cover from lightning and severe weather. Ton says I slept through most of the storm but I was really awake and listening to the storm.
On the way to Badlands the signs for Wall Drug started popping up, and I asked Ton if she wanted to visit Wall Drug. To my surprise she said she had no idea what it was. Ton like many people who have adopted the US often knows more than natives about the country so I am always surprised when she does not know something about the country. So we stopped and I had a cup of coffee while Ton explored Wall Drug.
I know I am starting to sound like a broken record, but I am not sure we realize how spectacular the National Park System is. Badlands was 25 miles of spectacular other worldly formations carved by wind and water. I am not sure our pictures are going to do it justice. It was definitely worth the 1300 mile trip to see. I hope the other parks live up to the Badlands.
Today we started out with plans to drive 8 hours to the Badlands NP. But enroute our youngest son Dylan called and convinced us to swing by and see the Devils Tower National Monument. This was the first national monument ever created. It is a 800 foot rock that sticks straight up in the air with what appears to be columns. We walked the base of the rock which takes about 45 minutes. A very impressive feature but very crowded today with people scrambling all over the rocks. For me it took away from the experience as it is a place that deserves some quiet contemplation. Especially since there are signs all over saying that climbing on the loose rocks requires a climbing permit, and I doubt the park service is issuing permits to 4 year olds.
After the stop we decided to stop short and ended up at Ellsworth AFB. When we got there the normal RV park was full but he said there was an overflow lot a couple of miles away. So tonight we are parked in an old parking lot with two other RV’s at the end of the runway in an abandoned part of the base. We do have a great view of B1 and B52 bombers landing and taking off.
