Wind Cave National Park Caverns

On Friday we headed over to Hill city, SD to the Wind Cave NP.  It includes the third largest underground Caverns in the world, and is noted for its boxwork.  Jewel NM is not too far away and is the 2nd largest.
This Cavern has very little moisture, and a lot of calcite which forms this boxwork on its walls and ceilings.   One can also see popcorn, and frostwork This outside opening is the original that was found in 1890 by Alvin McDonald, when he was not quite 18 years old as he followed the wind into these caverns with only a candle and a role of string.  The cave is named because of the wind that blows from this hole to the point it will blow your hat off, and at other times it will suck it in due to the changes in barometric pressure.  There are many tunnels yet to be explored.  It is like a piece of swiss cheese if you can imagine!
On the surface, the park includes over 28,000 acres of prairie land, where the buffalo have been preserved, and roam free, as well as other kind of animals.
On the way home, there was a thunderstorm with hail.  The temperature dropped 30 degrees in a matter of minutes. But a beautiful rainbow appeared, and it was double.  Might be hard to see on the picture, but I had never seen this….a nice ending to an interesting day.

Good Bye ND, Hello SD

For the last week or so, we have been hanging out around Pick city at Lake Sakakawea COE Park.  There were many sites to see, as well as doing a little geocaching. 

    As we drove through North Dakota, there were huge fields of Sunflowers.  They produce a vast amount of sunflowers seeds, oil, canola oil, and wheat here.

Over in Washburn, ND, there is a Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  Since we have been following the Missouri river, it showed the travels of these adventurers.  There was an old fort where they spent the winter around 1805.

Another  day we went west to Beulah, ND to the Coal Mine, the Coal fired Electric Company, and to the Great Plains Synfuels plant.  We spent the day touring.  It was an eye opener to see how coal is being used, and made into electricity and other by products.  We have since found out that in the late 1980’s, Rollie’s cousin, Mark West,  was the one who started this plant…..

WE will be coming back to this area over labor day, and hope to get a chance to take our friends on the tour.

Now we are off to South Dakota.  We stopped at Hermosa for two nights to visit friends from Kerrville.  Yesterday we headed to Keystone where some of the bikers from the Sturgis Rally were hanging out.   Here is a peak of Biker Week..

Now off to more adventures…..

Theodore Roosevelt NP, Medora, ND

    Here are a few pictures from The NP here in Medora.  This park is part of the great plains, and definitely different from Glacier NP.

It is in the 90’s here, although the nights are cool.  We are staying at Buffalo Gap Campground which is part of the National Forestry.  It was a great find off of Exit 18, and the price was right. 

     Today we did the 26 mile scenic loop which is really a great view of the park. There are also places to stop, and walk some of the trails as well.  Of course we met up with a herd of bison, and they were NOT intimidated by us at all. 

     Medora is the number one vacation spot for North Dakotans.  The Pitch Fork restaurant, and musical are a must to see if you come to this area.  We had never heard of this place, but it was a great stop for us.

  We have just arrived in Downstream COE at Lake Sakawea.  We will explore here for a few days, and see the area….
     I am trying to moveover to Wordpress so if you get this twice…sorry…

Fort Peck, Montana

     After Glacier NP and saying good by to our good friends for a while, we came here to Downstream COE Park. It is beautiful with shade trees, and is next to a huge lake, dammed by the COE in the 1930’s.  It was used for flood control then, but now it produces a huge amount of electricity for the area, and makes it a great recreational spot for anyone to come camp.

     The power plant is about a mile from here, as well the Fort Peck Interpretive center with replica of animals in the area, and some specimens of dinosaurs found in the area.  Not too far away there is also a fish hatchery which is used to stock the fish streams with walleyes.

    We are going to chill out here for a few days before we head to  Theodore Roosevelt NP. 

The weather is cool in the evenings, a little warmer in the afternoon, a nice place to hide out….even a little geocaching.

Glacier National Park Highlights

     I must say this is one of the most beautiful national parks we have seen.  It has been a great two weeks here, so I am just showing a few of the many highlights that are here.  If you like the outdoors, camping, and hiking, this place is great.  Even though this is high season here, there is plenty of room.  People arrive in their compact cars, pull out their tents, and coolers, and off they go…amazing.  I wish I would have been more adventurous when I was younger.  Travelling in a 5th wheel is not bad either!!!

     The only animals we have seen are these prairie dogs.  This one was trying to carry a piece of rug to his hide out, and having difficulty shoving it all in its mouth or tripping over it.  He was cute!

     There is a road through the park called going to the sun, which we did a couple of times.   These are a few pictures along the way. 

     Our weather has been perfect except for these last few days of rain.  The rain was even fun, but not for picture taking.

 

On Sunday, the 15th, it was our 19th wedding anniversary.  We decided to head to Canada, and see the Waterton National Park which is part of Glacier.  The Prince of Wales Hotel is in the park.  We had a great lunch even though it poured rain.  What a beautiful setting! 

     On Monday we headed south, passing some of the residual trees where fire had been several years ago.  We are staying in Bear Creek River Access for a few days until our friends family gets here.  Then we will head east.      

      Couldn’t have picked a better place to boon dock.    

 

        Rollie is here at the edge of the river….

Glacier National Park

      Today we got up early in the morning to catch the express bus in Apgar in west Glacier to Logan Pass, and then on to St. Mary’s, which is the east entrance.  This road is called the Going-to-the-Sun Road.  It is fifty miles, and transects the park.  We decided this would gives us a flavor of the park, and it did.  This road is also under construction, which makes travel by car tenuous, as well as it is high season here.  By 1100, the park was getting full, and we were ready to head out, having driven in a shuttle bus for six hours.  What great scenery we have to look at!!         Here are some of the pictures.  The mountains are known for their ruggedness, but there are many falls, and streams along the way.  We saw some snow, and even a glacier.  We will go back in a few days and plan our attack on the other things we missed.

  Hopefully we will head over to the eastern side of the park and camp for a few days, and maybe even get to the Canada portion.

     We met our friends here, David and Linda, who we are enjoying a few days with camping until we head east.  All I can say is that it is beautiful country.

West Yellowstone, MT

     After getting our gray water tank repaired, we headed to Island Park, ID.  This is just a short distance from the west entrance of Yellowstone, and across from Henry’s Lake.  We will be here until after the 4th of July. 

     On Sunday, we headed to Yellowstone early, and were able to see Old Faithful in all its glory.  I must say it was pretty impressive on a beautiful day.  There are many other geysers in the park that we saw, but none as large as this. 

     After seeing this, we finished our ride through the park, and went to investigate West Yellowstone, MT.  The park itself is situated mostly in Wyoming, but once you leave the park at the west entrance, you come into Montana.

     The next day we left the RV park, and rode to the Madison River Canyon Quake Area.  In 1959, a 7.5 earthquake hit this area without warning on a beautiful moonlit night.  The epicenter was near Yellowstone, but the damage was mostly incurred here.  In a matter of seconds, the earth’s crust dropped 19 feet.  There was an 80 ton rock slide.  A total of 27 people died, and it could have been more….with all the campers around.  There are three fault lines in this area.  They tilted north, and sloshed water in the river and Hebgen Lake like you were in a bathtub.  Even to this day, you can see the remnants of the damage this quake did. 

      Today at the visitor center, an incredible view can be seen.  The water you see is Earthquake lake, where fallen rock blocked  the Madison river.  The forest rangers think  someday in the next hundred years, it may turn back into the river that was before.

     On Thursday we head to Deer Lodge for two nights, and then off to Glacier National Park.