National Park #11, canceled August 6, 2019
The second half of our summer 2019 road trip took us from the Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains. From St. Mary in Glacier to Cottonwood Campground in Theodore Roosevelt, we had a long drive getting there. Camp setup was pretty quick by this point, and our first night in the plains was set to the soundtrack of cicadas and coyotes.
We got up and about the next morning in time for the first Maltese Cross Cabin tour of the day. It’s the log house Theodore Roosevelt lived in when he came to North Dakota after the death of his wife and mother on the same day. There were bats inside, so we had to go carefully after the tour instead of all at once. Next up was a drive to Painted Canyon. We took a walk along the nature trail into the canyon, which ended up being a poor decision due to how hot it was and the steep climb back up. Mikayla and I in particular had to spend some time cooling off afterwards.
We found a picnic table just outside the park where we ate lunch, followed by ice cream across the street at Medora Fudge and Ice Cream Depot. Then we re-entered the park to take the scenic drive as far as we could get before a road closure. We stopped at a number of viewpoints and took short trails along the way, including Skyline Vista, Wind Canyon Trail, and Badlands Overlook. We particularly enjoyed the Coal Vein Nature Trail, which taught us about a fire that burned underground for 26 years, and Buck Hill, which was a short climb to the highest accessible point in the park. We also saw lots of prairie dogs in their town and a herd of bison along the way.
Back at camp, Jeremy started up the fire while my friend and I went into town for a few groceries. Near one of the prairie dog towns we saw some feral horses, and on the way back there was a coyote scouting out his next meal. After dinner, we went to the evening ranger program and learned about Theodore Roosevelt’s lessons in conservation; then we drove down the road a little ways to join a star party. We learned how to read star charts, then looked through telescopes at Jupiter, Saturn, a star cluster in Hercules, and the Andromeda galaxy. Even though the moon was out, we could still see the Milky Way and far more stars than we can at home. We saved the Junior Ranger ceremony for the next morning on our way out, when we grabbed a few souvenirs, and began the drive to Badlands.
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