Trek Across North Dakota

It's Sunday morning and we have left Glendive, Montana on our way to Big Timber. We had a nice day yesterday driving across North Dakota--much nicer than I expected. At first we were heading straight into a stiff northwest wind which meant bad gas mileage and stopping frequently. Since our daughter went to college in Moorhead, we've made the drive up 94 to Fargo many times and knew that that was not a particularly interesting trip. (Tom used to refuse to go up there just because of the four hours of boring drive there and back.)

Once we turned westward the wind was not right in our face, and as the day wore on it eventually died down. I was expecting North Dakota to be flat. Much of Minnesota is flat, except for the parts that are near rivers. North Dakota had what I would describe as rolling hills, although the hills had interesting "shape features". It looked as though it had been a huge desert once, with sand dunes and piles of sand heaped up to points, and then one day it all froze into rock.

Most of it was cultivated into enormous fields, with occasional batches of cows (including lots of cute baby cows). There was that huge sense of space you get out in the
countryside when there are not a lot of trees and you can see for miles and miles. The road wound around just enough that you didn't get that feeling of one long straight stretch of boredom you get in some parts of the country. Unfortunately I did not have the presence of mind to have the camera at hand, so I will have to try to capture some of it on the trip back. (Then I can get a shot of the exit sign for the town named Home on the Range.)

We stopped for gas in Dickinson, and just west of that you come to the "painted canyon", and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. There was a rest stop with a scenic overlook, and we saw just enough prior to that to know we needed to stop and see it. Here's a representative picture:


We were pretty tired puppies by the time we got things set up in Glendive. The campground there was quite nice, and we had a pull-through spot which makes it extra easy. Our spot was at the edge of the campground, looking out toward the sunset and more buttes. I was googling our directions to Big Timber this morning, and I have a feeling we'll have a beautiful drive today and wind up in a completely different kind of setting than we just left.