Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

 August 23, 2021

It's been a crazy week since I last posted. We left North Cascades on the 15th to work our way to Theodore Roosevelt NP in North Dakota. We drove along Highway 20 heading east. It had just opened up after being closed because of the wildfires in the area.  The damage to the forests along the way was devastating. 

I took a few shots with my phone as we drove by.

We made it as far as Coulee, WA and spent the night at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area near the Coulee Dam. It was 100 degrees that afternoon and the campground had no hookups. Somehow we managed to get some sleep with the help of our little battery-operated fan.

The next day we said goodbye to Washington after being there for about six weeks. We  drove across Idaho and stopped for the night in Missoula, Montana. The next morning as we were on our way to North Dakota, our refrigerator conked out. So we made an unplanned stop in Helena, MT in hopes of getting it fixed. The RV dealer tried to get it restarted, but couldn't and they didn't have the replacement part, but suggested that we call the dealers in Billings. After several phone calls, Lee finally found a dealer in Billings who had the part. So off we went the next morning with the newly purchased cooler from Walmart to Billings, MT. At least we were still heading in the right direction. 

Long story short, we got the part and Lee installed it himself! The unused cooler got returned a few days later in North Dakota.

Phew! So now to the main purpose of this post. Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Our last main stop before getting home.

The entrance to the park is in the town of Medora, a cute little touristy western town. 

The Visitor Center is at the entrance. We watched a short video that gave an overview of the park and it's history. Behind the Visitor Center is Roosevelt's  Maltese Cross cabin that was moved here from its original location. He split his time between this cabin and his Elkhorn Ranch (a remote part of the park), when he came to ND.

From the Visitor Center, we continued five miles into the park to the Cottonwood campground. We were lucky to get one of the first come, first served sites. It's a no-hookups campground, but in a pretty setting.

There is a loop road through the park, but a small portion of it was closed for repair, so it became an out and back. The scenery is beautiful. This park is considered the North Dakota Badlands, but they are very different from the Badlands of South Dakota. (See earlier post.) The cottonwood trees, the grasses, and the river add color to the buttes. 

Looking out at Wind Canyon and the Little Missouri River on our first evening in the park. 

We walked to this overlook the next morning. The rain was coming.

This flower stood in sharp contrast to the rugged path we walked on.

Our view from the overlook

This park is one of the few national parks where visitors can see free-roaming, feral horses.

Here they are close up.

Bison are also plentiful in the park.

The male (left) was chasing after the female, but she didn't seem interested.

I watched this young bison walk over to its mother and appear to be nibbling on her ear. It was a sweet moment.

Mother and her young calf (red dog)

There were prairie dog "towns" everywhere. There must have been thousands of these little critters scurrying in and out of their tunnels and nibbling on grasses.

 

I caught this little guy leaping up in the air.

The sun finally came out on our last full day in the park, so we crammed a lot in. We planned to do some hiking, but first we stopped at one of the overlooks from the previous day, to see what it looked like on a clear day.

We found the trailhead for the Jones Creek Trail. The sign at the start described the trail as moderate, muddy, stream crossings (water could be deep). We just decided we'd start walking and see what happens.

Some scenery on the hike

As you can see by the buffalo chips, we weren't the first ones on this trail today.

If you click on this, you can see the two bison on the hill just above the trees. They had just been on the trail before us.

After 1.5 miles, we came to the first stream crossing. This is where we turned around.

On our way back, one of the bison had settled himself down on the hill looking over his domain. 

On our way to our next hike, we took a detour onto a dirt road in the park, not knowing what we'd find. 

As we rounded the bend, this is who we ran into. We sat and waited for him to decide to get off the road and join his herd in the field.

Time to find another hike. We continued around the loop road until we reached the Boicourt Trail. The beginning of this trail is paved, then leads to an unpaved climb to a view of the park to the south.

The path gets very narrow when you reach the top. I made sure no one was coming up when I was going down that section.

View from the trail

Later in the afternoon, we drove to another entrance to the park. It's called the Painted Canyon. There's a paved path along the rim with views of the colorful rock layers in the canyon. We hiked the Painted Canyon Nature Trail, a loop trail that takes you down a steep path into the canyon.

We left the park yesterday. We spent last night in the parking lot of Phat Fish Brewery in Dickinson, ND, one of the Harvest Host free camping spots. Of course, it's never free because we went in for pizza and beer. Today we're in Jamestown, ND enroute to home. Just 1,400 miles to go.  It's been a wonderful trip, but we're ready to be home.

North Cascades National Park

 August 14, 2021

All the campsites in the National Park were full, so we had to settle for a campground that was about 20 miles away. We arrived at Glacier Peak Resort on Thursday afternoon. Don't let the name fool you into thinking this is some fancy campground. I guess you could call it rustic. It wouldn't be so bad except for our neighbors. The woman in the RV right next to ours spends every waking hour sitting at her open door chain-smoking. On our first night after we had gone to bed, we had to listen to a very loud off-key songfest by her hammered husband until almost midnight. Most of our camping experiences have been very positive. We've been pretty lucky overall. The saving grace here is the campground had a laundromat and wifi, so we got our laundry done on Thursday. 

On Friday, despite the smoke from the forest fires that had covered the sky, we headed for our long-awaited visit to North Cascade National Park. 

I loved that they made the park sign to resemble a glacial peak. That's not the typical standard sign.

After stopping at the Visitor Center to get a map, we went directly to Diablo Lake. Diablo Lake is a reservoir created by Diablo Dam. It is located between Ross Lake and Gorge Lake on the Skagit River. It was recommended to paddle in the morning to avoid choppy water when the wind picks up in the afternoon. It's a beautiful lake, almost fiord-like, with rock cliffs on either side. It's not surprising that this area is called the American Alps.

The water was the beautiful blue-green color that we've come to know in these northwestern lakes. Sadly, only the shadow of the mountains could be seen.

The rugged shoreline reminded me a bit like those seen in Maine.

After a tranquil 5-mile paddle, we returned to shore to have our picnic lunch. After lunch we drove a little further west to see the Ross Lake Dam. This dam separates Ross Lake and Diablo Lake. We didn't realize we were going to have to hike down a very steep 1.5 mile trail to get to the dam.

On our way down, we could see the dam from an overlook. We still had a long way to go.

We were able to walk out across the dam. I was standing at the center point when I took this photo. Lee had walked to the far end. You have to zoom way in to see a tiny speck of his orange  teeshirt 750 feet away. The dam is 1300 feet wide and 540 feet high.

This photo was taken from the center of the dam looking down into the smoky Skagit River gorge between the two lakes.

No hike would be complete without at least one wildlife photo. On our climb back up the hill, we saw this little Douglas Squirrel munching on a Douglas Fir cone.

Today, Saturday, is our last day here. The sky is still filled with smoke, so we decided not to go into the park again. Instead, this afternoon we went next door to the Glacier Peak Winery for a wine tasting.

We tried six different wines, a white, a rose, and four reds. Neither one of us liked any of them well enough to have more, so we just hung out on their patio relaxing for awhile.

Tomorrow we continue heading east toward home with a few stops along the way.

Mount Baker, Baker Lake, and More

 August 12, 2021

We spent the last three days camping in Concrete, WA. We found our campsite through Harvest Hosts, an organization that offers RVers a spot on their property in exchange for purchasing something from their establishment. In this case, the establishment was a farm. The owners have set aside a few spots for RVers to park for a night or two in exchange for purchasing your choice of homemade baked goods, vegetables from their garden, grass fed beef, etc. 

 

This was our no frills spot on the farm, just off the dirt road. 

Our view across the road

We got a view of Mount Baker every time we drove down the road to our campsite.

We chose baked goods and fresh vegetables as our exchange. We got to pick our own from this garden.

Here's some of our haul. The summer squash was so delicious. No pictures of the baked goods, but we'll be enjoying the giant chocolate chip cookies, carrot bread, and blueberry crumble for awhile. Yum!

The farm property borders the Skagit River. After we settled in, we took a walk down the dirt road to see it. 

On the way back, we found a blackberry patch, so we picked a bunch for our breakfast.

We planned to spend the next day at Baker Lake in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, so the next morning off we went with our kayaks and our hiking boots. Baker Lake is one of a pair of reservoirs formed by two dams on the Baker River. Baker Lake is a popular place for boating and fishing. There are also several hiking trails and a campground.

When we started paddling, the North Cascades were cloud covered with just the tip of a mountain peaking out.

Just a tiny portion of the shoulder of Mount Baker was visible. We were determined to wait it out. That's a jet skier leaving that wake in the background. All kinds of water sports in this popular lake.

Meanwhile, we continued to explore the lake and its many quiet coves.

There's a log bridge in the background that we walked across later in the afternoon when we went for a hike.

This Great Blue Heron found a comfortable perch in the lake.

 Mount Baker with most of the clouds gone.

Finally, a clear view. Our patience paid off.

In the afternoon, we traded our paddles for hiking shoes and hiked along the Baker Lake Trail. It was mostly forest, with a few views of the lake.

I spotted this Boreal Chickadee in the bushes. It's another new bird for me.

An interesting thick blanket of moss covering the base of the tree.

These little white butterflies were very common. We've seen them all over the place.

Looking out at the spot on the lake where we were kayaking earlier. (As mentioned above.)

A Hairy Woodpecker - another to check off my list.

The next day we decided to try Lake Shannon, the second of the pair of reservoirs described above. We soon learned why everyone goes to Baker Lake instead. The road leading to Shannon Lake is very long and primitive. The area around the boat launch is just now starting to be improved for day use. 

Despite the primitive condition of the parking area, the lake was just as beautiful as Baker Lake. We were the only ones there. What a strange feeling to be the only ones on this big beautiful lake.

Our first view of the lake and Mount Baker from the boat launch area was gorgeous.

We have the whole lake to ourselves!

Almost all to ourselves, except for a couple of loons.

We watched from a distance as two loons were chasing each other across the lake.

That evening back at the farm, we watched the sunset over Mount Baker. The smoke from the fires to the east of us had finally reached us. We've been lucky so far. I think our luck has run out.

Our next stop, North Cascades National Park.