Rex and Nancy's Travels - "ALL WHO WANDER ARE NOT LOST" - JRR Tolkein

Sunday, we drove 68 miles to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.   A few miles outside of Medora on I94 we stopped at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center. We took a short trail that ran along the rim of Painted Canyon.   The views were beautiful, but the picture does not show all the color. We continued to the North Unit and took the scenic drive – 28 miles roundtrip in and back.   A short way into the drive we had to stop for bison on the road.   This was one of the many times we would have to stop for bison – we are so happy. These large round rocks on the floor and protruding from the butte are called cannonball concretions.   They were formed when sand grains from an ancient river deposit were cemented together by minerals dissolved in groundwater.   Erosion is slowly exposing them. On the other side of the butte there was a whole pile of these “cannonballs”. Like the South Unit the North Unit has a variety of landscapes – we like the contrast between the badlands and

On Saturday we visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park – South Unit.   We drove the 36-mile scenic loop although currently it is no longer a loop drive as the last few miles are closed for road construction.   The park was established in 1947 as a national memorial to honor President Roosevelt and to provide a place for everyone to experience his beloved badlands.   Theodore Roosevelt National Park is the only national park named after an individual. This lone bull bison in the distance is the only bison we saw in the park today. We stopped at Peaceful Valley Ranch, which was a ranch in the 1800s, a dude ranch in the 1920s, headquarters for the CCC and WPA in the 1930s, park headquarters in the 1950s and 60s, and a facility for guided horseback rides until 2014.           We found the rock formations and hoodoos very interesting. We hiked the Wind Canyon Trail which follows a cliff edge overlooking the Little Missouri River.   The views of the river were beautiful. We also hiked a sho

Thursday morning, we left early and drove across Southeastern Montana to Medora, ND.  This is our first time in North Dakota, and we are excited to finally see this area.  We are staying at Red Trail Campground on the edge of town.  We originally were only able to book a water and electric site but were fortunate that a full hook-up site became available.  After getting set up we drove to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Visitor Center to get info on the park.  We also walked around Medora.  This is a small town on the Little Missouri River and is very much a tourist town with lots of restaurants and shops.  Of course, we found an ice cream and fudge shop and had a dish of ice cream and bought some fudge to take back to the motorhome. The RV Park is only ½ mile from town so Friday morning we took Tacky for a walk into town.  On the far side of town, we walked around Chimney Park, the ruins of a slaughterhouse.  In 1883 the Marquis de Mores created a town along the newly constructed

Monday morning, we left Greybull and drove to Hardin, Montana.  We arrived late in the afternoon and are staying at Grandview RV Park.  We don’t have much shade, but we do have grass and a small irrigation ditch running alongside our site. We spent most of Tuesday trying to get reservations at RV parks for after we leave this area.  After many frustrating hours we finally managed to get reservations at parks until the middle of September.  We can now enjoy our next few weeks without worrying about where we are going to stay.  After we finished making our reservations, we drove around the small town of Hardin and stopped at the visitor center. We got up early Wednesday so we could go see the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument before it got too hot. We first looked at the displays in the Visitor Center and watched a very good 24-minute film about the battle and the site.  We learned a lot about what led to the battle and the battle itself.   Just outside the Visitor Center is C

We decided to take a day off from sightseeing and stayed at the motorhome on Friday.  We spent the day relaxing, organizing our photos and working on the blog.  We also took a short walk before it got too hot. Saturday morning, we took a short drive east of Greybull to an area called The Devil’s Kitchen, a 115-acre badlands. We drove around the rim and stopped at a couple of overlooks.                The sandstone, shale and claystone formations were beautiful. We then drove to the bottom of the formations and hiked into them.  The geology in Wyoming is fascinating. Sunday, we did laundry and got the motorhome ready as we are leaving Monday morning.  We enjoyed our time in the Greybull area, especial the Bighorn Mountains.

Thursday, we drove into the Bighorn Mountains on the Bighorn Scenic Byway.  We went through Shell Canyon again and stopped above Shell Falls.  The view was beautiful, but we are still seeing smoke from the fires in Canada. We continued over Granite Pass to Burgess Junction where we turned onto the Medicine Wheel Scenic Byway. We stopped at the Medicine Wheel which lies atop Medicine Mountain at an elevation of almost 10,000 ft.  We had to hike about 1½ miles up to the site.  Tacky looking at the trail thinking “no way”, but we all made it just fine. The Medicine Wheel is one of North America’s most important and well-preserved Native American sacred sites.  The White man called it Medicine Wheel but to many Native American Indians it is “The Place Where the Eagle Soars”.  The Wheel is 8 feet in diameter with 28 lines or spokes radiating from the center to the outer rim.  It is at least 250 years old.  Native American Indians, representing 81 different tribes, still utilize Medicine Whe

Wednesday, we took a drive to Shell Canyon, Red Gulch Dinosaur Track Site and Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site. Chimney Rock is a red rock formation at the mouth of Shell Canyon.  This picture does not show how red it is.  The smoke is from the fires in Canada. Shell Canyon is named for the shell fossils found in the sedimentary rock walls of the canyon. Shell Canyon is a beautiful drive into the Big Horn Mountains.   We stopped at Shell Falls where the water flows 3,600 gallons per second - it was breathtaking . The riverbed just below the falls. We walked along a path that took us to a view of the canyon farther downstream.     We headed back down Shell Canyon so we could visit the Red Gulch Dinosaur Track Site. After a long drive on a very rough gravel road, we arrived at the Red Gulch Dinosaur Track Site. The dinosaur tracks here are approximately 167 million years old.  They are much older than T. rex which lived about 67 million years ago.  This is a picture of