When it rains----head to a National Park

After a week at the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, we decided it was time to move on to find some of the National Grasslands in the Dakotas.

Problem:  Four days of rain were predicted, everywhere in the upper midwest.  The only way to avoid it would be to drive so far south that we wouldn't want to drive several hundred miles north again when the weather got better.  All that would accomplish would be unnecessary driving or not seeing the grasslands.

Vicky found an alternative--a National Park.  She found that there was a campground that had asphalt roads.  The rains were predicted to dump amounts measuring in inches, so we knew we did not want to get stranded on the dirt roads we usually prefer.  They would turn to a muddy mess, and we might be stuck on them for a few days after the rains stopped.

Frankly. I had never even heard of the Theordore Roosevelt, National Park.  Have you?  Not you either, huh.

It has an unsual feature--it is actually two areas separated by some 20+miles.  We stayed in the "North Unit."  As we later found out, this "unit" has less usage than the "south unit" because the southern one is close to an interstate.

The campground was perfect for waiting out the weather.  It was esceptionally quiet.  Well patrolled, water, bathrooms, trash collection---like a 5-star hotel.  There are spots for campers, and pull thrughs for the bigger rigs.  Being small, we could camp in one of the tent sites, which means we didn't hear the generators that the larger rigs had.

Here is our site:

It was cloudy and gloomy during our stay here, but we had books and movies.  We got out the first day for a short hike, the highlight of which was seeing, for the first time, wild buffalo.

See them in the distance in the next photo?

We also saw deer and, right outside our camper, wild turkeys:

In between thunderstorms, we took walks.  Came upon a shelter built by the CCC.  Still in awe of this 1930's depression-era program of the other Roosevelt.  Parks all over the country built by this program, and built exceptionally well.  It is always a treat to see a CCC structure.