It would be a long day, the longest of this trip, so I was up early. I usually get ready after Amanda; I gauge my time by where she is in her routine. Getting ready first gave her uninterrupted time to get ready, with no steaming mirror while putting on makeup! Today, I took a shower first, made coffee and a fire, then worked on a post. I also made our lunch, grilled eggplant sandwiches, and Amanda packed them and our snack bag for the road trip.
We were headed to North Dakota to see Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I imagine many may not do this on a day trip from Black Hill, but we are not your average tourist! I originally booked for six nights, but with a weekly rate, it was only a little to stay an extra day. This is what we are doing with that extra day. My justification for the long day was we might never return to North Dakota and certainly wouldn’t make a trip just for this park.
It was a gradual winding road up out of Custer. We would go up and around the hills to Rapid City and down the interstate before heading north. This was the fastest route. The more scenic routes we’re saving for later, yet this was still very scenic. The small towns looked quaint, and we plan to hit many of them on our last day with just a loop around the hills. Going down the interstate would take us through Sturgis, too. It’s not a bucket list item, but we can say we’ve been now!
The next stop was for coffee at a cute coffee shop and cafe in Belle Fourche. This town is known for being the geographic center of the US since the addition of Alaska and Hawaii. I’m not sure how that works, and it seems a little off to me, but what do I know? Amanda got a Miel, espresso, honey, cinnamon, and milk. I got a golden latte that was blended spices, honey, cinnamon, and coconut milk; I made it dirty with a couple of espresso shots, too. Neither was very good; mine was a crazy yellow color. Seemed they were heavy-handed with the turmeric.
Once we continued north from the questionable center of the USA, we lost all trees and gained long rolling hills. This was ranching land, no farming, maybe a little hay production. Other than that, it was cattle country. My father would have loved it. Whenever we traveled and saw cow country, I would always send him pictures.
We ran into what I thought was smoke from a fire but became fog. It was a darker color than typical fog, though. It seemed like a cloud. I’ve only encountered this one other time, and I was on a train coming into Alpine, Texas. Once out of it, you could see its parts were higher and grey-colored like the lower clouds. It is interesting. The drive was desolate; it reminded me of a scene for Lonesome Dove where they drove cattle for days before getting to the water.
The speed limit was too slow for stretches that went on for as far as the eye could see. I was driving a good bit over the limit when a Tahoe, much like our Yukon, blew my doors off. As Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights would say, slingshot engaged! With my speeding confidence boosted, I followed him at a high rate of speed through the Little Missouri grasslands until we reached a potty stop.
Amanda needed more caffeine; she didn’t drink much of her coffee since it wasn’t too good, and she had a headache. So we grabbed a Coke Zero, an occasional treat, and some ice. I needed to dump my golden latte to make room for the coke. I had mixed some leftover coffee in it earlier, hoping it would boost palatability. It did the opposite, and when I poured it out, the dark coffee combined with the yellow latte made for a baby poop color! Someone remind me to stay away from golden lattes from now on.
The first stop in North Dakota was the Painted Canyon Visitors Center off I94, where we got our first good look at the Badlands. It was windy and cold, too. After my potty break, I didn’t wait for Amanda, and I walked to the viewing area; I knew she wouldn’t stay long in the cold wind. She came up next to me while I was taking pictures, and the next time I looked over, she was gone and headed to the visitor’s center!
We then made the short drive down the interstate to the town of Medora and the main visitors center for Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Our annual park pass gets us into all national parks, monuments, recreational areas, and similar places. It’s worth it and pays for itself quickly when visiting parks like we do. We still had to go into the visitors center to show our pass. Then, we wound our way over the interstate to the first of many prairie dog towns.
We got an excellent spot to watch the fat little critters while we had lunch in the car. The sandwiches with the grilled eggplant and leftover zucchini, artichokes, roasted red peppers, and a little hummus made excellent sandwiches on the toasted sourdough bread we picked up in Omaha. After we ate, I walked out to throw the trash away and get a closer picture of the prairie dogs. They are so vocal with a kind of bark when you get closer to alert the others. One was busy with pine needles in his mouth, making his bed or insulating for the impending cold winter ahead.
We decided the views alone were worth the drive up. Such a unique terrain would change with each turn of the road. We made our way through the grass valley by the Little Missouri River while we listened to our Guide Along app, which told us of all that surrounded us, with lots of Teddy Roosevelt history mixed in. We began to see more buffalo the farther we got into the park. I wanted to see some Mustangs, though!
There was a scenic loop, but it was closed due to a road construction project. So we could have to come back the way we came in. I had a few hikes lined up and rated them from 1-4 so we knew what to take if we couldn’t make them all. We decided to go to the end and pick the spots we wanted to see more on the way out. It was lunch and dessert time not far down the loop, so we had to get the obligatory scenic cookie photo.
We crossed the time zone a few times without knowing it at first. The cabin is in the mountain time zone, but we went back and forth to central. We were somewhat in a time crunch and got off a little late, too. I had us planned to be at the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming before dark. I freaked out a couple of times when I saw the hour later time, thinking we had messed up.
After making the end of the drive and turning around, we knew which hike we’d go on. With the cold and wind, Amanda wasn’t up for too many, and time was limited, so we just did one, my #1 pick. It was about a mile, and we went to a high overlook with 360-degree views of the Badlands’ terrain. It was ADA-compliant and paved about a third of the way. Then, a well-worn trail the rest of the way. I was stopping to take pictures as Amanda kept plugging along. As she always says, “I got little legs!” My fast and long gate can catch up quickly.
The view from the top of this tiny hill was breathtaking, and we had a fantastic 360-degree view. We had the area all to ourselves, not even a car in the parking area, which we could see from the distance. Amanda was tiring at the end, and I was huffing a little, but it was well worth the effort.
After our hike, we left the park; I still hadn’t seen my Mustangs yet, so we were looking. Amanda has hawk eyes and is always looking for wildlife. As we passed by a tall rock hill a few stories high, we noticed what looked like a coyote, a big wolf, surveying the land for dinner. We stopped and watched him, who was in turn watching us now. We were missing my binoculars on this trip; I forgot to pack them. I tried to get a picture, but it was far off, and the quality wasn’t good. I zoomed in, but it was a sight I don’t think either of us will forget. After looking at the zoomed-in picture, I saw it was just a coyote.
Not far after the coyote sighting, we rounded a corner looking at prairie dogs on the road’s edge and noticed mustangs in the distance. A decent heard of them. They call them feral horses here and say the term wild isn’t correct because they originate from domesticated stock. I like Mustang, so I will stick with that.
We needed a pick-me-up, so we headed for coffee but the shop on the main street was, but we found another. It ended up being the best coffee outside of Starbucks thus far. Much better than the baby poo latte! We were behind in making the Devil Tower by sundown now, though. So, it was time to hammer down with coffee in hand. We had interstate speeds for a bit; then, it was a long stretch of construction; I felt like I was on I35 in Texas. Then we exited and had a long run on a red dirt road. It was a good road, so we hurried down it pretty quickly.
After the dirt road bumps, it was time for a potty stop, but the bathrooms were few and far between. We passed up on what was a ways off the highway and planned to go to the next town about 30 miles away. That was a bad idea; no bathroom in the next town—another 40 miles to the next town with a service station. We pulled up to the location on the maps, but nothing was there! We finally found a gas station with a bathroom one hundred eighty miles from getting coffee! The car was filthy, and the tires were pretty, now a solid red color.
The terrain would change quickly once we crossed the Montana line and got into Wyoming. Rolling hills with trees, finally, and it would continue all the way to the tower. Deer were our biggest issue now, and they were everywhere.
We rolled up to Devil’s Tower just as the sun was low on the horizon. I had my park pass in hand but didn’t need it; the park ranger shack was already closed for the day. We wheeled right up to the front and found a parking spot at the trailhead. There were two loops, one closer and the other farther away from the tower. By this time, the sun was shining a fiery red color on the west side of the tower.
We started the hike to what seemed the closest to the tower, but once getting closer, it looked like we picked the wrong trail. The trail was paved, but the closer it got, the more boulders looked like they would block the way. It turned out the trail just wound through them. It was a steep grade to get to the base of the tower filled with car-sized boulders. I could see people scrambling up the field of boulders much higher up at the base. The steep, quick climb worked home; she was tired. We stayed for a while, but she was unwilling to go any farther. We took a few pictures and made our way back down.
There were rags tied to the trees; it was kind of creepy. With the name of the tower, it led to ominous thoughts. Turns out they were prayer clothes. Either way, they looked like something to worry about. We watch entirely too many scary movies, Amanda’s favorite.
From there, we still had drive ahead of us, but it would be broken up by our dinner stop in Spearfish. I had a Nepali/Indian place picked out. We love these sherpa-type places. I enjoy it all, but Amanda leans to liking the Nepali side better; she’s not a curry fan. These places are always easy to get a plant based dinner at. Ethnic restaurants are always the best for plant based eats.
We stuffed ourselves. Our appetizers were garlic naan, vegetable samosas, and pakoda. For entrees, we went with mixed vegetable curry, a tomato curry that Amanda dislikes, and mixed vegetable biryani, a rice dish. The waitress asked what the spice level was. I looked at Amanda, and she said medium. If it were just for me, it would be max-level spicy! That medium would be hot or extra spicy at many other places back home. Amanda said it must be just right for me since I didn’t ask for anything spicy; it was, but I knew it was too hot for Amanda. I told her to use the yogurt to mellow out the heat, knowing the acidity would cut it some. It wasn’t plant based yogurt but an emergency, so she used it a bit. It didn’t need to be an emergency for me to cheat a little with that; Amanda is much more strict than I am.
We’d planned to go to Mt Rushmore for a night viewing, but it closed at nine, and we would miss it by about 10 minutes. We didn’t make it far, though, with our belly burn and “we’ve already cheated attitude, we got some frozen custard from Culver’s. It’s a Midwest stable; I remember them from my time in Iowa. Getting home close to ten, hitting the sack didn’t take long! I had a leisurely morning planned the next day, knowing we’d arrive back late.