Note: This blog entry is quite long... I probably should have split it into multiple blog entries. Maybe I'll come back and break it up at a later time.
-- South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park --
The temperature was in the low 30s overnight, but I slept fine in my sleeping bag inside my car. The wind died down overnight, and it was calm when I got up this morning.
The Cottonwood campground is near the Little Missouri River that runs through the park. Cottonwood trees grow near the river because they can get water. I walked over to the riverbed. The banks aren't very high, so when it floods, the whole campground can flood.
The cottonwoods are starting to show their colors.
The South Unit of the park has a 48 mile scenic drive that includes a scenic loop. One entrance to the loop is currently closed for construction, so I got to drive out and back over most of the loop today, which was fi e with me.
One section passes through an area full of black tailed prairie dogs. They pop their heads up from their burrows and scurry around. The mounded earth looks otherworldly.
There are several places along the scenic loop where you can park and take a hike. In the photo below, I am looking down on the road and my parked car, after hiking up a hill to see some formations above the road.
Layers of harder rock form capstones over the softer rock, protecting it from eroding so quickly. Eventually, some of the capstones fall over. The combination of these features makes for a very interesting landscape, and the dry climate creates some interesting textures..
The rocky mountains pull a lot of the moisture out of the air before the clouds get to North Dakota, so western North Dakota has a lot of desert landscape and vegetation. For example, prickly pear cactus, sagebrush, and juniper trees.
The juniper trees are found mostly in canyons and on north facing slopes, where the harsh sun doesn't beat on them.
When you see the yellow Cottonwood trees, you know the Little Missouri River or some other water source is nearby.
Bison roam freely in the park, and there are many opportunities to see single or groups of bison. They can be found anywhere in the park, but especially along the scenic loop drive. Here are just a few pictures of the many bison I saw today.
They can get close to the road and even cause traffic to stall when they coss it. In the next photos, only one bison is near or crossing the road. When I was here several years ago, I had to wait for a whole herd that was crossing the road.
In addition to bison, I saw mule deer, turkeys, several wild horses, prairie dogs, and a pair of coyotes today. Below are a couple photos of the coyotes and one of a wild horse.
Strata and banded layers are very visible in the colorful mountains and hillsides. The black bands are soft coal.
One of the trails I hiked today was the Coal Vein Trail. I hiked this trail when I as here several years ago, but I got lost. When I returned, the valley between me and my car was full of a herd of bison, and I had to hike onto the ridge onthe left of the photo below to make my way back to the car. That didn't happen this time. I didn't see any bison while hiking the trail today.
Now there are brochures at the trailhead that explain points along the way, and tell you which trail to follow when there is a fork. I learned a lot more this time, and the hike was much shorter!
The trail goes through a valley. I learned from the brochure that there wasn't a valley here prior to 1951. In 1951, a 12-foot-thick underground Coal Vein caught fire and burned for 26 years. As it burned, the rocks above the veinwere unsupported and the ground collapsed, causing the depression.
The brochure tells a lot more, such as that a red layer above a black coal layer that burned is called clinker stone. It is baked stone from the heat of the fire,and turns red because of its iron content. Grey layers are ash from volcanos in the distant past, and are called Bentonite. Fires need oxygen to burn, and underground fires get their oxygen from cracks in the ground, which become hot and bake into chimneys of clinker, whichare extremely hard, and can remain after the ground around it erodes away, as the chimney pictured below.
The Coal Vein Trail brochure is an interesting read. You can download the pdf file by clicking
here.
After I finished hiking and driving the scenic loop, I drove to the visitor center. I watched a 17 minute video about the park, and then went behind the visitor center to Theodore Roosevelt's old cabin and listened to a ranger tell fascinating stories about Theodore Roosevelt's experiences in the area.
Among the stories, Roosevelt knocked out a man in a fist fight. He spent days on a raft rounding up horse thieves who stole his boat, and successfully turned them in. He bought a ranch, and had another one built (Elkhorn Ranch). Elkhorn Ranch is in a remote part of the park, with a separate entrance and rough roads. I didn't try to go there.
If you get a chance to read about Theodore Roosevelt's time out here, I'm sure it will be worthwhile. I would like to read more about him.
The cabin is original, and has been disassembled and relocated several times. It stood a few miles south of here when Theodore Roosevelt lived in it. Roosevelt originally came to the area to shoot a bull bison and take home the trophies, which he did, but he also developed a love of nature and the wilderness.
-- Painted Canyon --
Before driving to the North Unit of the park, which is about an hour and a half drive, I wanted to revisit the Painted Canyon overlook that I saw briefly last night. I'm glad I did, because I met a couple of new friends.
I met Jundong and his son Lele when we were both admiring the view of the canyon. We started talking about our backgrounds. Jundong is a professor of Computer Science at nearby Dickinson State University, and Lele is a high school student.
We talked for quite awhile about our backgrounds, my cross country trip, and some of our desires for the future. During our conversations, we discovered that Jundong and Lele visited the same art museum this past summer, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, that I visited this past week. They also drove past the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
We shared photos and discussed some of the pieces we liked, and found that we even took photos of some of the same works of art!
When they found out I graduated from BYU and am LDS, Lele mentioned that he has LDS friends at school and they are nice people. So that is another coincidence we discovered.
We exchanged contact information, took a few selfies, and parted ways. We will keep in contact, though. I also gave them my blog address and told them I would post our selfie on my blog. I really liked visiting with them and told them they are welcome to stay at my house if they ever come to California.
-- Drive to the North Unit --
I saw some cool looking clouds and some cows feasting in a cornfield on my hour and a half drive to the North Unit of the park.
When I arrived at park entrance, at first glance, I thought the bison next to the entrance sign was statue, but it was a live bison, and he had a nearby friend!
As I drove from the entrance to the Juniper campground, I was treated to a stunning sunset!
I selected one of the many available campsites, and am sleeping in my car again tonight. I didn't see any tents. Everyone else is sleeping in a vehicle, also.
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