North Dakota in 2 stops

We stayed 2 unique places in North Dakota.  The first was Fort Stevenson State Park in Garrison, ND.  This Park is nestled on a lovely peninsula on the Lake Sakakawea (a lake formed by a dam on the Missouri River).  The lake is named after an important woman in our history who is more commonly known as Sakagewea, but in her Plains Indian Hidatsa tribe, she was known as Sakakawea. The land has been transformed since the dam was installed, but that did not hinder our experience of learning the history and seeing the beautiful scenery. We traveled due north from Bismarck through rolling hills of miles and miles of green fields, windmills, and coal mining to get there. 

A coal mining crane, the size was HUGE, like the size of a city block!!!

Miles and miles of this…

We had a beautiful site at the State park and our hikes were spectacular!

Our site

 

We had some great hikes along the banks of the lake. 

I posted a fun video of Bodi Cam on Facebook of our hike here.  It was too big to put in the blog. 

On our way to our next stop, we visited The Knife River Indian Villages.  Here we got to go into a mud hut that had been constructed to let us see how this community lived on the high banks of the river.  

Then we stopped into this National Hatchery and learn how fish are harvestedfrom eggs and raised to be shipped around the country to stock lakes and rivers. Fascinating. 

Our 2nd North Dakota stop was Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  The landscape was amazing!  We enjoyed more hiking and sites but much was from the road.  

So, we drove around (and around and around…3 times) the campground looking for our site.  It wasn’t until we found the park ranger that he showed us our site was actually just a pullover space on the entrance to the campground.  We were a bit disappointed at first, but later settled in and it was fine.  Vic started a nice fire in the lifted grill and was diligently watching the burgers cook when suddenly a loud noise happened just behind him.  I was up the hill watching him and talking with him and we both were like, “what was that?!”  Down on the ground at the base of the tree, a 5-6 foot bull snake was righting himself and just sort of looked stunned.  He had fallen out of this huge tree about 5 feet away from Vic where he was standing.  That was something we talked about for a while!

Prairie Dog colonies were in both Ft Steven State Park and Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We don’t know if it is intentional, but this National Park seemed set up for just road sightseeing or horse back riding.  Most of the hiking trails were miles away from our campground and then all the trails banned bikes and dogs.  So most of our walks were in the campground or along the road. The rocky hills of the area gave way to their name The Badlands, as they were difficult to travel over and/or to cultivate or use as grazing lands.  We agree.  We are delighted to see our first buffalo and tons if prairie dogs!  We stayed away from the buffalo and the prairie dogs would disappear when ever we got any where close.  

Before leaving the park, we took a special trip to visit a petrified forest that we had to hike into to find.  It was a wonderful experience even if the 7 mile dirt road to the trail head was brain jostling miserable. We climbed 2 miles over a rocky hill and through a dreamlike meadow to reach the petrified forest.  On our way out, we came upon a herd of wild horses that of course we needed to get their pictures.  They obliged.  Overall we truly enjoyed that excursion even though the truck and camper are full of tag red dirt all over and unsystematic everything.  Future camper wash on the itinerary…

 experience.  

A couple goals of ours is to add stickers to our National Parks map we have hanging inside the camper and add to our National Parks sticker collection we have on the back window of our rig. Both were accomplished here.  We’ll be adding more as our trip continues. 

Vic is making progress on Chapter 3, and is happy working while I drive. 

Fargo, a gem of the Midwest and a quick spontaneous visit

 So, our unplanned but necessary diversion to Fargo turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  After a stormy night, we woke up to a beautiful, if pretty muddy, morning in downtown Fargo, North Dakota.  Again, we researched where Guy Fieri of “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” (“Triple D”) had been in Fargo: We discovered a lovely bakery just 2 miles from our campground. Who doesn’t want fresh gourmet pastries and yummy coffee first thing in the morning?

The Bodi Blockade to keep him off our bed with his muddy paws

So we geared up the dogs and set out on a lovely walk along the Red River. We meandered through the park like trail and sidewalks that led us up into the neighborhood where we found Nicole’s Bakery. Triple D did not disappoint!

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A dream of a park

Vic chose the Pesto Mozzarella danish

We shared the cinnamon bun

 

I chose the Mushroom and Asparagus puff pastry

We learned that Roger Maris is from Fargo

Now onto our next destination, we had to pass through Bismarck, ND.  As some know, Vic has a propensity to hold onto fun facts and spurt them out when appropriate.  “Did you know that the capitol building of North Dakota is the tallest building in North Dakota?” Of course, I didn’t know that and I say, “let’s go see it!”  As we are just coming over the last ridge before seeing the city “skyline” of Bismarck, sure enough, we see it off in the distance.

Bismarck skyline as we are approaching on I-94 Westbound

As we are approaching the exit to go see the capitol, Vic says, “let’s fill up the tank and then go to the capitol.”  So, who pulls up next to us at the Shell station? The Bismarck Fire Department!  We chatted for a while with these fine fellows, who acknowledged that we were far from home.  And they confirmed that yes, the capitol building is the tallest in the state.  They should know…

Are all fireman nice??? They are in Bismarck!

Farewell, Bismarck!  Thank you for your beautiful beacon guiding us off I-94.  Now onto a more northern destination…

Minnesota at 65mph

I’m sorry, but this is the only picture I took of our day on I-94 through the state of Minnesota. 

The day after I returned from the wedding (June 20) we reloaded the camper onto the truck and got ready to continue north and west, Minnesota was our next planned stop.  We had made arrangements to boondock (park with no electricity or water hook ups) at a Harvest Host: Meadows Golf Course in Moorhead, MN.  But, as we were watching the weather for that day, Minnesota was under an Extreme Heat Warning all day/evening for the entire state.  Our truck read 104 degrees when we pulled out of our Wisconsin site at 3pm.  We saw that with a 3 hour drive to our boondocking site, the temps up there would be around 99/100 degrees at 6pm.  That is too hot for us and the dogs to be safe or comfortable without a/c.   Also, we learned that severe thunderstorms with high possibility of tornadoes was also predicted for the area. So, we made the decision to drive a little further into  Fargo, North Dakota and stay at a city RV park that had electricity (so we could run our air conditioner) and a storm shelter in case a tornado came to area.  We spent a rainy, windy and thunderous night at that spot, glad to feel a little safer than just being in a parking lot all alone. 

Moooovin’ on up to Northern Wisconsin

 Seeing the dairy farm cows was a real thrill.  In a  totally different environment at our next stop, we’d be tucked way into the woods at Pigeon Creek Campground at Black River State Forest in Millston, WI.  We checked the weather for the next morning, and things looked pretty good for a nice hike.  About 2 1/2 miles into the hike, the heavens opened up and started soaking all of us.  That left us double-timing it back to our campsite, completely drenched. The rest of the day was spent inside listening to the storm, Vic worked while the dogs and I napped.  It was a pretty buggy area and I had to pick numerous ticks off the dogs.  The biting flies and mosquitoes made the visit not so pleasant.  

We received our first citation from the rangers for not having the proper Wisconsin Parks and Forests Vehicle pass which we quickly purchased at our next Wisconsin State park at Willow River State Park.  Here, we had beautiful days of hiking through the woods and along the River.  The Willow River Falls did not disappoint.

On our walk around the lake, I see this fox off in the distance!   

Only to discover he’s a decoy to keep the geese off the beach

 

 

I’m a happy campin’ dog!

Our site at Willow River; camper “back pack” off the truck explained below

Me struggling to make dinner on the fire

Find a nice family to take our picture…

Agi and Bodi make new friends with the nice family

Willow River Falls

Vic finishes Chapter 2!

 Halfway through our week here, I leave Vic and the pups at the state park and fly out of Minneapolis airport to meet up with family in South Carolina for my niece’s wedding. 

Vic and the dogs pick me up at the airport.  Had to take the camper off the truck so we’d fit in the passenger drop off/pick up lanes. (We learned the hard way in past airport RV passenger pick ups, that’s not the easiest thing to do…)

We are all happy to be back together again!

After a quick camper clean up, laundry done at local laundromat, we put the “back pack” back on the truck and say “See ya, Wisconsin!” and start heading up into Minnesota.