It was our first full day at Theodore Roosevelt National Park and it started with rain. Not much rain, it just sprinkled through the morning. This was really a benefit after the last few days as it was a little cooler with the clouds. We started off by changing campsites to one by the river.
Our new site has a western view to the hills on the other side of the Little Missouri and we can look down on the river from the back of the campsite. There isn't really much water in the river at this time and one could walk across it, but only if one didn't mind getting knee deep in mud. It is a meandering muddy river since the bentonite clay that makes up the North Dakota Badlands (where the park is situated) erodes into the river/ The animals don't seem to mind, judging from the tracks leading into and out of the water.
After this slow start we headed off to the park visitor center and a ranger talk and visit to Roosevelt's Maltese Cabin, the cabin he built and lived in when he purchased the Maltese Cross ranch, his first property in the Dakota Territory. The cabin is next to the visitor center, not its original location. It has moved around quite a bit for a log cabin, having been sent off to a couple of exhibitions in the eary 20th century and then to the state capital for a time. Finally, it came to the Park Service and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The talk itself was abit disjointed, made a bit more difficult by being outside while it was raining, but the cabin was interesting. It is furnished as it would have been during Roosevelt's time, including a few original pieces.
After the cabin talk, it was off to Medora, the town just outside the park for some provisons. We just wanted some bread and a lighter for the stove. The lighter was found, but bread that wasn't a large loaf of soft white bread was not to be seen in Medora. It isn't much of a real town; a convienience store and a bunch of tourist shops it about all there is. We'll need to get to somewhere a bit larger soon to provison a bit more.
Provisioning is going to be a bit of a challenge on this trip as the refrigerator is still not cooling well, particulary on propane. The freezer is working, getting down into the single digits, but the refrigerator compartment is getting no lower than the fifties. This makes it a bit dicey to keep any perishables, which sort of limits our fresh food and the ability to keep leftovers. It may partly be due to the high tempertures, but we are not convinced. We are hoping that it will be cooler in the mountains and it will come down into a safer range.
It was then off to tour the South Unit of the park. There is a 27 mile scenic road the loops through the park, with several opportunities to take some small walks along the way. The badlands here are interesting, but not as "bad" as the South Dakota badlands at the Badlands National Park. The hills seem a bit less abrupt with softer rock and clay and a lot more active erosion, There is also a lot more grass on the hills and in the valleys. And a lot more wildlife, lots of prairie dog towns, herds of wild horses and herds of bison. We also saw a single mule deer. There are also supposed to be elk and bighorn sheep, but we saw none.
Once the sprinkles stopped, it started to warm up and by the after noon the clouds were gone as well. We'd hoped to do some longer hikes while we were here, but I think the short walks we took today were enough.
Only a little motorcycle news for the day. We pulled into one of the parking areas to find a BMW F650GS, like Ellen's sitting there with two helmets on it. As we were waling the trail we came upon a couple, about our age, who were the obvious riders and struck up a chat as we were impressed that they were riding two-up on the 650. But they'd only ridden from a National Forest campground about 20 miles away. They were on their way back to Wisconsin and were trailering the bike.
After the road tour we settled Speedy into the new campsite and finally got out the Kermit chairs and the table and set them up with a view of the river. After a bit of a relaxing read it was time to fire up the hot water heater for speeedy showers in Speedy, always exciting in the confines of the van. The hot water heater works even if the refrigerator doesn't.
This evening's ranger talk was on Theodore Roosevelt and his travels. It was a great improvment over last night. It is always amazing how variable the talks can be.
Tommorrow it is off to Painted Canyon and then up to the North Unit of the park, with, we hope, a real market somewhere along the way.
Today's photos tomorrow.
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