North and South Dakota
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2006
1
4
8
Trip End
Jun 18, 2006
Keystone,
South Dakota,
United States
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Most of North Dakota is flat prairie. This suddenly ends at the Painted Canyon and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The Painted Canyon is very much like the Painted Desert and Grand Canyon in Arizona except on a much smaller scale and with more green vegetation. The Roosevelt National Park has a number of prairie dog towns. If you haven't had the chance to meet any before, prairie dogs are large rodents that live in large groups in underground tunnel networks. If they feel threatened, they bark warnings to others and all flee underground. Despite having regular human visitors, the prairie dogs at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park were rather disturbed by our presence and barked constantly. Fortunately for us, not all listened so we were still able to see a plethora of prairie dogs
bison
. At the first prairie dog town we encountered there was also a lone bison standing on the horizon. We drove through a long scenic loop in the South Unit of the Roosevelt National Park. After our first bison sighting we were eagerly watching for more since the park service states that there are 1300 within the park. We mostly saw prairie dogs with some kind of deer thrown in for good measure. After more than 20 miles, we finally saw another lone bison. This one was eating along the side of the road about 30 yards from the car. We were quite excited, or rather I should say that I was excited because I startled both Paul and Emily when I squealed that there was a bison. A little farther down the road we came over a hill and saw that there was a bison just down the way and that he was right by the road. We were able to stop the car (there was nobody around) in the road and watch him eat for a few minutes. This guy wasn't bothered by us at all and walked within 15 feet of us. Very cool.
After all of the bison excitement, we were quite surprised to come upon a group of feral horses. They were walking on the road, effectively blocking it. While technically wild, they were quite friendly and came right on up to the car...I'm sure they were hoping for a handout
Bridal Veil Falls
. As we slowly drove off, they trotted along behind the car for a little bit, which Emily really enjoyed. We did see some other critters in the park: a deer of some sort, a rabbit, a couple of unidentified snakes (from the car), and various birds.After leaving the national park we had lunch in Medora, ND, which is a tiny town at the entrance to the park. From there we headed off towards South Dakota. The temperature changed dramatically as we drove along. We went from the 57 in Bismarck to mid-to-upper 70s in the national park to 103 as we drove along the plains of South Dakota. Our temperature max of the day was actually 106 in Spearfish, SD. Yes, a 49 degree spread for the day.
Northern South Dakota looks very much like most of what we saw in North Dakota...fields and more fields. We mostly drove on very straight roads and went long distances without seeing any homes, let alone any towns. Eventually the landscape changed: hillier with more trees. Before long we were clearly in the Black Hills.
We decided to take a scenic bypass through the Spearfish Canyon. It was beautiful with lush evergreens interspersed with significant areas of rock
Emily at the Painted Desert
. We were able to see a couple of waterfalls. One, Bridal Veil Falls, was right beside the road. The other, Roughloch Falls, was a short hike after driving down a dirt side road. Both were worth it. Along the way we saw a couple of beaver dams and lodges. As a side note, Spearfish Canyon is where they filmed the closing scenes of Dances With Wolves where the tribe is going to their winter valley home in the snow.We drove down to Keystone, SD where we're spending the night tonight. Keystone is approximately 2 miles from Mount Rushmore. Paul made reservations for us to stay at a hotel that had been highly recommended on a travel website that has served us well in the past. It totally failed this time. We pulled up and it looked like a dump: large trash items on the decks and piled in front of the place. Also, one of their employees was in a clearly manic stage and acting bizarrely (or appropriately manic, depending on how you look at it). When we went up to the room it was quite awful and smelled. Fortunately, this place didn't take credit cards and didn't have any of our money yet, so we left our stuff in the room and went off to see if anywhere else had a room. After going to a number of hotels that were booked (many of them with other people in line like us looking for a room), one of them said that another place down the street still had a room. We called them and lucked out. We retrieved our things from the first hotel and are much happier now. We're now fed (and ice creamed) and Emily has had a swim in the hotel pool. All is well.
I said that I'd get back to you on whether North Dakota could be an actual destination. We truly enjoyed the national park this morning and there is quite a bit nearby in South Dakota and Wyoming. While there might not be a reason to just go to North Dakota, there certainly is enough reason to go to Eastern Wyoming and Western South Dakota...and if you're going that far I think that heading north is worthwhile.
