North Dakota

7/08/2024 06:44:00 PM

North Dakota

Location: Medora & Fargo

When: mid June

Miles traveled: 867

Price of gas: 3.09 to 3.39

Interest: ?

High point: Mario wall!

Low points: Another badlands

Environment: Grasslands, hills, badlands, buttes, lots of nice wind (I was hot with mid 80s temps.), farms & ranches.

One thing learned: For sustained happiness during long term travel I need alternating or a mix of outdoor stuff(which is typically solo) and social/group activities.

In North Dakota my plan was to visit Theodore Roosevelt NP for almost a week. However, after arriving I realized I was tired of solo outdoor stuff, and thus not interested in exploring another badlands. I visited the National Park's south unit visitor center and took a half day to drive the scenic loop, but after that I looked for things to do that would involve interacting with other people. I found horse back riding and Fort Union Rendezvous.

Medora Riding Stables offers one and two hour horseback rides with many different time slots each day. They are also a popular enough destination that I did not worry about the event being canceled due to low signups. On Thursday morning I was given a black horse named Marty to ride. Out of our group of 12 ish people, I was the only one not wearing cowboy boots and jeans. Instead, I had hiking pants and sneakers. The trail we took meandered up, over, and around the landscape just outside of the national park. There was many opportunities to lean forward and backwards when the horse goes up a steep incline and down the other side. This might have been my second time on a horse, the first time being many years ago as a Girl Scout.

Highest point of Wind Canyon trail

After the morning horseback riding, I drove the NP scenic loop. Theodore Roosevelt NP is special because of the president and his cattle ranch that was once on these lands, and not because the landscape holds particular beauty and mystery. The park is also divided into three areas, North Unit, South Unit, and Elkhorn Ranch Unit. I was camping in the South Unit, near the town of Medora, and I also visited the North Unit when driving back from the Fort Union Rendezvous. The scenic driving loop in South Unit passes a couple prairie dog towns, Little Missouri River (which carved these badlands), and has various overlook spots. The road mostly stays at the top of the badlands, like the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I hiked the short Wind Canyon trail which offers views of a bend in the Little Missouri River.

The next day I drove two hours north to Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site in Williston, ND. The Fort's Rendezvous is an event that showcases the 19th century. Re-enactors dress in periodic clothing and share their knowledge of traditional skills like boating, tanning, blacksmithing, pottery, and gun skills. I learned that God gave all animals enough brains to tan their own hide. Brains have an enzyme that is needed for cleaning the hide. I enjoyed talking with Gordy Lucht who invited me to demonstrate throwing on his kick wheel. He's a retired art teacher with a passion for clay, but was needed to teach a large variety of arts to his students. I also enjoyed talking with an actor French boat deckhand who also demonstrated the maintenance and firing of a 19th century musket.

Concretions

On the drive back from the Rendezvous, I stopped at the NP's North Unit. This section offers views from the bottom of the canyon. "Cannonballs" can be seen emerging from a butte. They are concretions, clumps of minerals deposited by water within the sediment layers of the butte. I thought they were the most amazing part of the ND badlands. Strange round forms emerging from the sides of hills, contrasting in color and shape from the dirt around them. The slump block formations were a close second with it's interesting rock layer lines slanting, no longer in line with the rocks around it.

After my days in the tourist town of Medora, I drove across the state to Fargo. I was in Fargo for one full day and a few partial days. The full day was Sunday. After church in the late morning, I walked around town looking for a ND state sticker and enjoying their street murals. The next day I headed out. Two states to go!