Teddy Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

Having studied the Little Bighorn thoroughly, it was time to move on. The next leg in our journey is to get to our friends the Janaks by the end of July. So it is north and east from southeast Montana. We left Saturday the 8^th and headed up I 94. It followed the Yellowstone River, which is very impressive. It is nice rolling hills, with lots of farms and beef herds.

Saturday night was spent in Glendive Montana, not much to talk about. We did meet the Pohlmans at the same campground, Lazy Daze owners from Virginia who also attended the Cheyenne Caravan. They also were aiming for our next camp, the Teddy Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

We arrived at the park early Sunday afternoon. Since it is first come, first served and well off the beaten path, it was only 10% full (in July no less). So we got a great site in the trees, with great shade. The Pohlmans pulled in about 5 pm, after touring the park in their LD.

A funny thing happened at the park visitor center. Since I finished Ken Atkin’s Custer book, I was looking for something to read. There was a good selection of Lewis & Clark books, since this is the route they used. I selected one and bought it. At the counter, there was one of the national park stamps for marking parks attendance. I asked the ranger at the counter if I could use the stamp in my book, to show it to a friend of mine. He had most of the 350 + stamps. The ranger said I bet I know your friend’s name, Fred Koegler. Wow, you’re right, how do you know that? Turns out that he knows Fred from a ranger’s organization. It’s a small world.

We liked this place so much we decided to stay a second night and use it as a cleaning day. We had a great day; the sky is the bluest blue and the breezes light. We went for a walk after breakfast and decided to go down to the river here, the Little Missouri. As we approached the river, we heard what sounded like very loud snoring. Weird. The river here is about 10feet below the land level, due to erosion. As we approached the river, we looked over the bank to the river. Ten feet down was a buffalo! Snorting like hell. Well no problem, he is ten feet down. He scampered up that cliff faster than I can say run like crazy! This bull was taller at his back hump than me. And he was bigger than our CRV. He scattered the campers quickly, ambling across the campground.

Monday turned out to be the hottest day on our journey. It peaked at 96, with medium humidity. Our problem was that generator use is restricted to 8PM. It was 95 at 8, so we were hot last night.

The pictures are of the camp and the Little Missouri River, which runs next to our camp.