Back in the saddle again...

This morning was the most beautiful drive I have ever been on. We had to return the rental car so we drove south along Montana 89. The sky was grey with the rain at the campground and no one else was up at 6:00 in the morning. I drove the car and Scott followed in the camper. As we started to cross the mountains, there were 4 handsome deer with the fuzz still on their antlers chewing on the grass along the road. They looked up as we passed but didn’t leave the road. Then a mile later there were 4 horses in the field with their manes blowing in the breeze. Then as we started to come down the mountain, the sun was shining to the east and the clouds were still coming in from the west and there was a gorgeous rainbow. Rainbows are one thing we have seen a lot of here. At the visitor center on Sunday night, we saw an arching rainbow that went from the ground on one side to the ground on the other side, but no pot of gold!!!

Once we were in East Glacier, we headed east on Highway 2. This was a two lane highway that crosses northern Montana. Essentially, in northern Montana there are grain fields, cattle, railroad tracks and towns that are identified by the grain storage/train loading stations and if you are lucky a gas station. From East Glacier, that goes on for 6 – 7 hours depending on how long you stop to stretch your legs. After a little detour on a dirt and gravel road thanks to GPS, we made it to Fort Union Trading Post NHS. This is a site where the American Fur Trading Company opened shop in 1828 to trade European goods with the Indians in exchange for furs and Indian made goods. This trading post operated for 39 years on the upper Missouri River and was then torn down to build an American fort for westward expansion. The parks service excavated the site and rebuilt replicas of the fort based on pictures and written accounts. It is really out in the middle of nowhere but represents our first park in North Dakota. The kids got Junior Trader badges and then we headed south to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

This park is essentially the badlands of North Dakota and is the place that Teddy Roosevelt called home after his first wife died. It is where he learned to be a rancher and led to his formation of the rough riders. It also sparked his interest in conservation because he saw the over-grazing of the prairie by cattle ranchers and the decimation of the American Bison on his trips here. Our original plan was to spend the night in the park and get a jump start on our ranger badges before visiting things in the morning. When we pulled in to the visitor center the campground was full, but luckily my parks guide listed a place that was a few blocks north in Medora, so here I sit with excellent wi-fi, a shower at my disposal and power for the night. I am a little disappointed because I have heard that the bison come right through the campground and I was really looking forward to that.

More tomorrow from Bismarck. Pictures through today are uploaded to FLICKR.