On our way to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we drove
through Lemmon, South Dakota, a small town on the S. Dakota/N. Dakota state
line. The town is proud of its Petrified
Wood Park built by Ole Quammen in 1930-32. He found a large quantity of
petrified wood pieces in the prairie around Lemmon including bones of
prehistoric animals. So, he hired a crew to collect the wood and with it, build
an art exhibit of 100 cone-shaped pyramids or “trees,” along with a fairy
house, a circular shaped museum and a large grotto. The project managed to give
a few men a couple years of work at a time when there was little available.
We drove Highway 85 that runs north and south along the east
side of the lengthy Theodore National Roosevelt Park. It connects the south
part of the park to the park’s northern section. Hwy 85 is not a particularly
pleasant drive. Oil field related truck traffic dominates the road making it
impossible to enjoy scenery watching, even though the highway is designated
“scenic.” Especially with the strong wind we were driving into, Nina, at my
feet, was on pins and needles with every whoosh of a passing semi.
We arrived at Juniper Campground in Teddy Roosevelt around
5:00. Or was it 6:00? We were in the Mountain time zone for a while in western
South Dakota, then we switched back to Central time in North Dakota. If we
weren’t mixed up before, we really were then.
The next morning after breaking camp, we drove the 14-mile
scenic Park drive to the Oxbow Bend in the Little Missouri River. The layered
light-colored bluffs that reach the ground in “folds” reminded me of Escalante
National Park in Utah, on a smaller scale. The Little Missouri River as it
curves through the valley at the base of these bluffs is beautiful. Bison were
lying in small groups in the lush meadow grass not too far from the road.
After leaving the Park we headed north on 85 to pick up
Highway 2 at Williston, finishing up the semi-filled truck route on a blustery
day. At one point a stone glanced off a passing truck and flew into our
brand-new windshield. F**#!!!, was what our driver said. Fortunately, there was
no cracking – yet! Just a chip.
Montana! We drove 250 miles west to Havre and then north to
the Canadian border.
We entered Canada at Wildhorse, Alberta, at about 5:00
(Mountain Time) It’s a small, one-man, out-of-the-way crossing, and, driving
north into Canada, after 25 minutes, we had met 2 motorcycles, 1 semi and 1 John
Deere tractor. No phone service and no need for electricity either for that
matter because there were no houses, no driveways and no cross roads on this
very unpopulated stretch of highway.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North
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