Day 16 Teddy Roosevelt National Park North Dakota and Devils Tower Wyoming via Montana

What a day! I sit here in my tent the snap of my neighbors fire crackling and sadly the higway sounds of Rapid City overpowering everything. Well I can not have it all. But still what a day!

Started out in Medora, ND with a great breakfast at the Cowboy Cafe. Yummy stuff and great service. As I have said throughout the trip a good breakfast always leads to a good day.

The right outside our door was TRNP. I was not sure what to expect but hey this was my 46th state to explore and another National Park off my list. I was ready.... oh i was so not ready...

Just over the first turn up the route not even on the scenic loop yet I ran into Prairie Dog Heaven!! I love me some Prairie Dogs and these little cute buggers were everywhere!!! I mean everywhere! It was outstanding!!!

After that well then I ran into Mr Bison calming eating his breakfast.

As the wildlife continued to distract me I knew I had to try and get to my first hike. Wind Canyon Trail. None of todays hikes were big or huge but they did get me out of the car and off the road and into the wild, well more than 100 yards from my car at least.

Wind Canyon did have some wind and some pretty steep drop offs but overall was pretty easy, Great views of the Little Mo though.

After that we traveled up to Buck Hill the highest point in the park to check out the view. IT WAS REALLY windy up there and the guys were not pleased with my choice.

As you can see Nate is getting knocked around by the wind

Next up was one of the coolest parts of the day. The Old East Park Entrance trail. It wandered down an old road , barely , to the now abandoned entrance station that sat along the also abandoned old Highway 20.

Look at that stonework still standing all the years later. Imagine the people lined up once upon a time to come in and see this beauty of a park. I mean you can hear the chatter....

Okay okay.. that was not the real reason this trail was so awesome. The real reason is that the trail goes right through another Prairie Dog Town and it was a chirping!!

If you look closely you can see all their cute little prairie dog head sticking up as they chirp away at me. ...

Or i could show you...

I have sooo many more. I will share them and many other pictures via flickr links from this blog after I get home and go through them. But look at these guys ... I just wanted to pick them up and cuddle them!!

There were a few other trails I did before heading out for the day and heading south. This is where I put all the random stuff from the day. So hear we go.

First off... wow wish i had time to explore but Medicine Rocks State Park looks amazing!!! Full of these and I do not know why.

Random Though #1 .. all these miles and miles of ranch range fence. . that by the way do not always keep the cows or horses in. Multiple times I have seen them on the wrong side and I have no idea how they got there. But I can not imagine being responsible for fixing the fence. I have looked at miles and miles of it on this trip. No thank you.

Cows by the way. They are starting to scare me. I mean it. Check these pictures out. You will understand.

What are they thinking and why are they staring at me? What is going on??? Are they thinking of me between two buns covered with lettuce, tomato, cheese and pickles? I mean .. . gawd . . its scary.

Random Thought #2 I drove past Black Hills National Cemetery today. Gardens of Stone they call them, military cemeteries. If you served on active duty or died in the line of duty you can be buried in one of these. It is a bit chilling and surreal to see all the headstones. As a former member of a service I can tell you not every one in the service is a GOOD person but be that as it may for whatever reason these people chose to join, some noble some just dipshits, they did join and joined knowing that they were putting themselves at risk. The thoughts of all these men and women who had dedicated their lives to our country was pretty big on the feels meter.

Random Though # 3 Ranches are so big and so spread out that their trash cans at the end of their driveways our commercial sized dumpsters. How cool is that lol.

So during the trip to Devils Tower this happened.

This one is all me. I stopped in the town with gas stations. I was just over a 1/4 tank. I knew I had a ways to go. I went to the bathroom and even bought energry drinks because i was feeling ragged. What happens I do not get gas and start on a long very very long straight road between farm land. It eventually went under 1/4 tank and it said 33 miles to go or so before empty. Susan nicely pointed out that there was only ONE gas station within a 60 miles radius and it was 25ish miles away. I was feeling a bit panicky. I turned off the AC . . . i drafted behind a big truck for about 10-15 minutes I guess because I didnt want to hit the gas to pass him. I evenutally made it into the small town with one gas station and i was as you see almost empty.

I have already filled back up again before I head out in the morning. Never again... yeah who am I kidding I have already done this multiple times on this trip.

Okay finally Devils Monument. It really is as imposing and awe inspiring as you think. It really was just crazy. And people climb this thing. I will let the pictures talk for themselves.