Tiny Dancer

Posted by Tiny Dancer / Saturday, May 21, 2022 / No comments /

On the Road Summer 2021 Days 6 & 7 Theodore Roosevelt National Park

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> On the Road Days 6 & 7   Theodore Roosevelt National Park<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="335" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/xaJnNNIHCRAdGdQve5LhbIN5CrSRtDVbHe2fYE61U2Zn23MXPmR-fmO_6kzOT_T60HN8y2rfrorpgc5GiJodq8CAQyDGcrrCOLMOsXflt9fybqrFfqZIgLlblQSRZz3lrjd3nFK9s7mMvG5QEg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Photo of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park by Gary Anderson, National Park Service. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Theodore Roosevelt did not create this Park. It was established in 1947 as a national memorial park to recognize his role in conserving federal lands. Nor did he create the National Park system. The first national park was Yellowstone, established by Congress in 1872 and placed under the exclusive control of the Secretary of the Interior as “a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">However, during his tenure as President from 1901-1909, he did what he could do preserve public lands for future generations to enjoy. He established the US Forest Service and established four game preserves, 51 bird reserves and 150 national forests on federal lands. He signed into law the creation of five National Parks. And he signed the 1906 Antiquities Act. This Act gives the President executive authority to designate national monuments on federal lands, giving them some measure of protection. He then designated 18 new monuments. The 1906 Antiquities Act has been diminished in scope twice, by the states of Wyoming and Alaska, each state requiring Congressional ratification for certain designations.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The number of new designations has varied with the Presidents in power. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #202122; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">It is important to understand what is happening today as we need to expand public lands more now than ever as out national parks suffer deterioration from overcrowding. Recently, Donald Trump, bowing to the private drilling and mining interests actually diminished a predecessors’ monument, a first. The legality of his actions in reducing the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments in Utah are still pending in federal court.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #202122; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #202122; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">It bears noting here if only to contrast the two Presidents, Roosevelt and Trump and consider where the United States stands today as a custodian of our environment: Trump’s unilateral decision to reduce Bears Ears by 85% followed intensive lobbying by Andrew Wheeler for a uranium firm. Trump subsequently appointed Wheeler as head of the US Environmental Protection Agency! Trump also unilaterally gutted protection for marine life in a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean protected under the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, significant for its fragile deep marine ecosystems and rich biodiversity, including many already endangered marine mammals and fish.<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> (The Department of Commerce and the Department of the Interior share management responsibility for this monument.) This is a critical time for preserving biodiversity hotspots, not intentionally eradicating them if we have any chance at slowing climate change.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The location of Theodore Roosevelt National Park was selected because Roosevelt himself credited this region for inspiring him to become President and to sequester at least some lands from the commerce he saw inexorably desecrating America’s natural beauty. He was a complex man, a game hunter and rancher himself and did not always coming down on the side of land preservation with the purity of John Muir. For example, given the opportunity to expand Yellowstone National Park in 1908, he instead gave control of the two million surrounding acres, which included the Tetons and Jackson Hole, to the Forest Service. The mission of the Forest Service is not to protect and preserve the unspoiled beauty of lands, but to manage and in many cases commercially exploit the nation’s forests and grasslands “to meet the needs” of present and future generations. But politics sometimes requires compromise, and overall Roosevelt’s record was quite commendable and the example he set, invaluable.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="335" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/kzYMOi0PUYuVvmpcbW68KZOh_hp4dBYm2m-ud9Y4l8xmW0EZHY9d0AexjWAD6z3xVofu5d1CS3CppwUWiou-Bkwz_4J40Y4uTVbVXiKr-2n3tE_L56eEEb9bg0_V_1ebA2camhc61n3F0UDSFQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">What is it about this area that inspired Roosevelt? As a New York politician during the glory days of the Industrial Revolution, Roosevelt saw firsthand the wholesale exploitation of America’s natural resources. On one bad day, Valentine’s Day at that, February 14, 1884, Roosevelt lost both his young wife to a kidney ailment and his beloved mother to typhoid fever. He had previously spent time in the Dakotas hunting bison and after wrapping up some obligations in the East, chose to set up a ranching operation in North Dakota where he could find both the solitude and opportunity for hard work that would help him heal from his grief. Here he had a front seat to the mass extermination of the bison and to the loss of the prairie by overgrazing cattle. A rancher himself and a big game hunter, he came to know the businessmen of the area. And he could see that unbridled capitalism would destroy the land until there was no beauty preserved for future generations and take from it until no more natural resources existed. He determined to take on the issue of conservation.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="351" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/N6kCER6GRyI2lair7PirrCM5v7C_Mf_FKmmL6zEWT275-Sl4n9J0Me1YNUCT0YVuDzJLct_JCXb2F0VPz4-ulCsbT9PQfg92WzeRtVUYyN74SWRKofUWiwF0o71yFTPuRqET0ycgvSigiHIZfg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="584" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Interstate 94 runs along the southern boundary of the South Unit of TRNP. Take exit 32 for the Painted Canyon Visitor Center and a gorgeous overlook of the Badlands. You can take a short loop nature trail there, just under one mile or take the longer in and out Painted Canyon Trail, just over four miles. If you are interested in exploring the rock formations and wildlife on a longer hike, you can start at the Painted Canyon trailhead and then choose the Upper Paddock Creek Trail, heading either west or east, with the option of joining different trails within the interior of the Scenic Loop Drive. I was intent on setting up camp, so didn’t hike on my way in. My game plan was to explore the area around my campsite. I had a hankering to hike into the petrified forests, though that would have to wait until morning. I’m sure it would be cool at night, especially in moonglow, but the terrain is ripe for rattlesnakes and I hadn’t yet learned who else lived there. What I can tell you is that those trails are probably amazing. Once you get away from the sound of traffic on I-94, you feel utterly alone in an immense surreal landscape. The rocks showcase the eons that have passed in different bands of color and you realize how brief your part is. Invariably, you begin questioning the underpinnings of everything you’re doing. At first, it’s terrifying.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Then it’s liberating.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A couple bison were wandering unconcernedly through my campsite when I arrived. I was struck with just how large they are up close.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The Cottonwood campground hosts, if they were the ones responsible for cleaning sites did not have the meticulous eye I would have preferred. Bits of plastic littered my site, a couple bags caught in the low thistle and flapping in the scrub and miscellaneous debris was embedded in the dirt near the picnic table from previous campers. Potable water was available at the campground entrance but not at my campsite so I rather begrudged digging in the dirt to pick up bits of debris. Glad I was traveling solo with no one to call me out on my crankiness, I cleaned the site. What’s wrong with taking a little extra effort in the interest of beauty? Besides, it’s part of my Junior Ranger pledge to pick up litter.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Maybe I needed to eat an amazing meal and head out to see some enchanting scenery along the Scenic Loop Drive. Sunset would deepen the colors of the rocks and I could return in a more expansive mood to better enjoy the evening Ranger Program at the campground amphitheater.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">My first stop on the Scenic Loop Drive was a prairie dog town. I’ve got a thing for prairie dogs. They’re on their game. They’ve got cool burrows with different well-thought out rooms. I feel like they are fit; that is that they keep in good shape and are good-natured and generally fun to be around. It’s just a vibe I get. They’ve got an effective system for alerting the community to ever-lurking dangers. They need to. They’re not much more than a foot tall, and generally pretty slight. There is absolutely nothing intimidating about them. You’d send your kid to bed with a fluffy stuffed animal version. Unfortunately for them, they appear as tasty morsels to a whole host of formidable predators, both on the land and in the air. Not the least of these hunters being rednecks who actually have parties just to shoot them. These guys’ll swear up and down that prairie burrows cause their livestock to break their legs. But the truth is not one instance has been documented. Ever. But go ahead and look up the parties. You’ll come across advertisements for dude ranches that offer prairie dog shooting as an entertaining diversion.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Ostensibly safe here in the park, there were a number of prairie dogs standing out on their mounds, pretty much ignoring tourists with binoculars and well, just looking cute.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Prairie dogs have a complex language. Doubtless more complex than the human murderers. They can actually tell each other that a tall, thin woman wearing a garish yellow shirt is prancing in their direction with a camera. Well, maybe they don’t explicitly say “garish.” The expert on prairie dog languages, biologist, author of <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Chasing Dr. Dolittle, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">a book on learning the language of animals and North Arizona University professor Emeritus Con Slobodchikoff hasn’t mentioned whether he has deciphered a social commentary aspect of their language. I suppose his theories are controversial enough. No sense in providing a critic the opportunity to feel personal disrespect because they adore polyester and prairie dogs find it hideous.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">As I’d hoped I returned to my campsite mentally refueled from taking in the beauty and so much different wildlife. Temperatures were dropping. I pulled on a hoodie, grabbed my red headlamp and made my way over to the amphitheater for the Ranger Program.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The Ranger told us about the trophic cascade, the exponential explosion of life and rebuilding of the ecosystem in Yellowstone after the wolves were reintroduced to their natural habitat. It involved the return of countless mammals, amphibians and birds. He didn’t delve into what must have been a crazy growth of the vast microbial world, except to note that the entire soil structure changed with beavers and otters damming the rivers and new tree growth solidifying banks and even changing the course of the river. This explanation of a trophic cascade was all delivered within the course of the ranger suggesting ever so tentatively a reintroduction of mountain lions to the park. Wow. Now there was an idea. It seemed the alliance with the neighboring ranchers weighed on his shoulders, however. Square One. Just where TR found himself. Already there were elk, bison and bighorn sheep. Why shouldn’t the government just buy out the ranchers and let the populations grow? Presuming the mountain lions didn’t do the entire job, we could keep the numbers of bison down to sustainable levels by selling buffalo meat. The country deserves more land devoted to parks. To the biosphere.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In love with the area, my head exploding with ideas to preserve it, I fell asleep under a starry sky.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The next morning, I took a buffalo trail that ran through a number of prairie dog towns. I got pretty deep into the outback. Prairie dogs were skittering and chirping all around me. Cottonwoods and tiny green plants, some with exquisite fairy-size flowers grew down in the gullies where water sometimes flows. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="624" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/YKIqnLG__Jjj_lpyPSfGXdesneB7eayiYCnXo_8Z8iNAr323nVDb56iz6VuMhktqaCVQ_cw69zPK4gV7yR9s_9wIPJRZ3jbV1LyXx_Rr1VWry9c1UobzWYh3rkPe6cejRi5QXTEYEuFt7fSzdw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="576" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The sun rose fast and furious.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="486" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/R5yMtfy_h-jo8Zi1rbGRihTEZHvU6snQpRMDgaG5LLR4qJYuo2lZIEBxum75FtQ5G1OcraBlVoZFZkkhI89k4tPekNjnS_gRJtV9G90Ve9zjN1qWPqpUqG3KDcd1NrMHo48bClzt-1byDln_1w" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="568" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Still, I did not want to stop exploring. I hiked through high grasslands with views of rock formations of dreamy shapes: spaceships, behemoth monster snouts, delicate swans, princesses with curly hair and plenty of teeth, laughing megafauna. I hiked through the petrified forests with their mushroom villages and weird and beautiful fossilized tree remains.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="351" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/y3GOlDgql4dgTXTElUsDJVFkSFY5TtseNF-cumIlBcEsoN2EnPU0cwAgo1NpddDfmQYhnbS1cj9qSu7SY11JBaV2v3VWw9mXQcDFQcYyxtViJNQUivHjj-mrpDfV7xTrb8Ot8YV9QN3PlmRrZg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="585" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">There was something about the feel of the land there. I simply did not want to leave. When I perused the US road map at the outset of my trip, I figured I’d head over to Glacier from the South Unit. Seeing Glacier was a dream I’d held close for 26 years, having twice during that time been forced by blizzards to turn back. I had no intention of exploring the north unit. It was inconveniently far, and I’d never heard of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park before this trip. But the Ranger Program helped augment the tone I was feeling. There was indeed something special about this place. I was all in.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">So, after hiking twelve miles of varied terrain, I still wanted more and ended up driving to the North Unit, a long hour and change passing pump jacks and corn, barley and sunflowers and maybe soybeans, I’m not sure.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I scored a campsite at the Juniper Campground from a man who looked suspiciously like<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Santa Claus. He recommended I take the scenic loop at sunset when a lot of wildlife would be out grazing and foraging. But I couldn’t move and was okay sitting in my camp chair and reading after filling my belly with another divine meal.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Thankfully you can find remote hiking trails hiking in the North Unit. It’s pretty creepy that it’s situated directly below the Baaken fracking fields, an environmental nightmare scarring the land, blaring light pollution from gas flares, trucks rumbling 24/7, and all the facilities and commerce that go along with the operation and the commensurate population growth. Pictures of the light pollution from satellites have made news coverage in recent years. You can get patches of relatively dark sky where stars glitter, but frankly, the fracking fields pretty much destroy any chance of the Park obtaining International Dark Sky status any time soon.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">To give you an idea of the sympathies of North Dakota politicians, read between the lines of this 2020 article excerpt about the Bakken fields:<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">“<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Like most oil-producing states, North Dakota had the opportunity to require oil and gas <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">producers to put up money in the form of bonding which would be designated to properly clean up and cap oil and gas wells once they were finished producing. Unfortunately, the state didn’t put that precaution in place, and now bankrupt companies are starting to walk away from their wells. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The state recently decided to use <a href="https://bismarcktribune.com/bakken/abandoned-oil-well-plugging-to-begin-mid-july-regulators-ok-ethanol-grant/article_a10deac8-9d45-5d1a-b98f-29a4810756f1.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">$66 million in federal funds </a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">designated for coronavirus relief to begin cleaning up wells the oil industry has abandoned — costs that the industry should be covering, according to the law, but that are now shifted to the public. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The Bakken boom made a lot of money for a select few oil and gas executives and Wall Street financiers. But as the boom fades, taxpayers and nearby residents have to deal with the financial and environmental damage the industry will leave behind. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 20pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">[1]<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Ah, TR. He did see this coming.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Upon leaving the campground the next morning, just at the entrance is a pull off and a short dirt trail taking you right into the cannonball concretions, rocks in the shape of cannonballs randomly placed in, against and on the golden cliffs. It’s interesting contemplating a geologic process that caused accumulations of sediment to harden in a perfectly spherical shape. <hr /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 17pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">[1]<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> https://www.desmog.com/2020/08/08/bakken-fracking-oil-boom-bust-hess-cleanup/<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="300" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XaUAPUHs-gexGFYs2sIcgDIA8dGowTNoflylZzHRFXaJk5JYxHQV3oJ0k7nyHBmgQ8RxcXCkdAxspMiXxwUeFuzYTd2i-HZ0DDNGCnTiz464hNXOQPKrNgIsEE_f-mQgZASaVLxdsXO0HYR3lg" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="587" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">From there, I drove the short distance to the Caprock Coulee trailhead at Riverbend Overlook. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="477" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/o3Hog6pPQhNzrsG7AUshvJrSGIxtdAlZBiJJyNdfG2GQQyd9XFIElIRkqQz5CUQWCqxiU9LB6X8MgY-QhzblV_mNSrMOfGLw332ihbd6RD2MXkBBG2zicamdyTqHhBb3CQ18vPj_gHTOMdmEmw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="577" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="337" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/mNwR5Tp4MXZCCEZ_hwkxmWzEW6Xwwr0t1cVYBOoLH-PQTRVr3Y6moOPrbmVUw7Ih4dIBOBdpsEky9sOL3XNXMsg9Rm5Ef-cMt01A_3KTwLacohJuC2EH2TQ_WNvMmU-j-9t38crpJSCX20GpQQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="583" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">It was on this hike that I understood what happened to Teddy Roosevelt here. I was deep into grasslands with scenic views, deep in the scent of soft sage and pungent juniper, under blue skies with puffy clouds, the wide-open skies where the buffalo roam and all I could do was write op-eds for the New York Times in my head. I tackled issue after complex issue, offering eloquent solutions. There must be some fairy goddess or lonely wizard, steeped in the politics of the day residing in the zephyrs there. And they’ll get you. Yes, they will.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Weird, but exhilarating.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Mine was a long, long hike which finally ended up at a parking lot filled with rubble, a bunch of orange flags, and a sign indicating that it was closed. That was okay by me, except that I had thought I’d be back at Riverbend Overlook. Instead it appeared that I needed to cross the road and doggedly tackle another very, very steep hill to get there.  <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And so, one foot following the other, I marched forward. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="624" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/R0-mtagAx7ozEqSvZqzB8pbsVUTM71flNktmTaXTMn8xFtwoRZHQetA69No3xI27Dyc7NKX-BkcO_eW4n5Xd6ENkTmTcOMvlmGOSg9h7VzwFo-A0hgIP5v7BdmotA2Vrgp8UavGjrUQqT3qzAw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="563" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I honestly have no idea how I got turned around. I was certain that Riverbend Overlook would be around the next bend. Again and then again. It was thus with alarm that I recognized a distinctive and familiar overhanging branch just before I found myself back at that damn depressing torn up parking lot with the dusty orange flags.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I did not trust myself to simply turn back around. What if I made the same mistake? Who’s to say there is not a trick element in the fabric of the universe along that trail waiting to snag me unawares once again?<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="351" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/NvkKMatkVnEtF6ehdtx2xpvUoDWo-FdhhPospVmHb1EgIrkhMZV4g3uTrclZKsG6YJZyqh2R7kw-mhzuo64uu5GSsED54ghfmbIrGWxONlZWoL3KCMjYyoqkLAdX_mpFbO6Mau5zYacfJpczyQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="581" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">So instead, I climbed the long, steep, hot, grueling asphalt road up and around a bend, and up and around another bend, and even farther up and around yet another bend, again and again, until my legs were like to fall off and finally, after I was quite certain my car had either been stolen or rolled down crevasse, there it was.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Nonetheless, I was itching to assume a position of power with all of the grand ideas swirling around in my head of things that absolutely must come to pass if we are to have a better world. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Yep, weird but exhilarating. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="477" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/V1dttcQY-XhLFpUh8JQe2juY-z9FPHoLkK3AgiMJ-WcOX7Cyyq1jX9r74bFZBRkqXGaY1Sa9PTzeOxzK-Y-wiWdnSc2ZWTXfG4T8Ou2YGBIvT555_Sz4Yoq1RXA4otw4pfvE7P0XHnrhtIyqhw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="503" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">TR’s spirit lingers on. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The Scenic Drive through the North Unit is 28 miles, over and back. Consistent with the magic I’d experienced thus far, it was filled with different wonders over and back.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The turn-around point is fittingly Oxbow Loop where, as I would, the Little Missouri takes an abrupt change in direction. The river flows north until this point where glaciers obstructed it some time ago (640,000 years) and it was forced to turn east, where it sped downhill cutting through the plains and creating the badlands. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="662" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/MXc13JXlfojDKzd3a5xgxlTWiwZLx-54bCIx_2OKC756pkWpjL91PheDc2KWrgYd9zl2Wsi1H7sCfpgJNin_qiPp1M6B5J7OYxgzkbXODY4pfHLA2vNhyVDAtCZZAgnBQbqQprrC53NT2H9TMw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="567" /><div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> </div>

On the Road Summer 2021 Days 6 & 7 Theodore Roosevelt National Park

On the Road Days 6 & 7 Theodore Roosevelt National Park Photo of the Theodore Roosevelt Natio...

Posted by Tiny Dancer / Wednesday, May 18, 2022 / No comments /

On the Road Summer 2021 Day 5 The Badlands

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">On the Road Day 5 - The Badlands <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><img height="289" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/6cPU5fhc_l1qjcJBEGyWnSRnOZvnf3ZjXmXwcJpfMORx830Le5-xlSdU1kYSP21FCudnOCEjgdcxWTuR3AmWzfWujjttDe8CU8PyfsCb4ocNo6Mgy-0aWrAiHgye8J3M76P2HdVp9teP5NcWWQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> Photo from The Badlands National Park website. Yellow mounds along Scenic Loop Road. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><img height="343" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/jaVKN0ORN8S65asAktMIU5dHGdoVFGUaRckZs3HGgQL1YfTUZDmI58mkAy2-fDQuTQtUuIhjQCxpYppt4fZB6FIyAMcW05TYIFcjpvNP08quCjFxsU5x4twAmqpQvLZOfa7WoNFlsVJORfvweA" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">NPS Photo<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><img height="155" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1WIEo737mf2ZA975LM4IhtjpfV1brmYAUPSxe_8Uay9lTtQwarkcoeYNfq8DWL8iRGcI1wFEWwR2BeW4uy8g9WC7heQLG4LuMbOIkV46t8xKaIp_D4fOEQxPoKG0cHabFEWOoM85xDRNw9AdGA" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">NPS photo <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">So why is this area called “the badlands?” Is it because, according to the Guardian, the Pandora Papers suggest that South Dakota is “sheltering billions of dollars in wealth linked to individual accused of serious financial crimes?” Is it because bad asses claim these hills? Hordes of unsmiling old men with pointed white goatees, tattoos coating sagging arm skin, and fat bellies pushing against black leather vests rode through the park on their growling motorcycles in noisy formations during my visit, a pit stop <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">en <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">route to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. No, it’s because though staggeringly beautiful, the terrain is unwelcoming to travelers, especially the ranges of clastic dikes visible in the third photograph. The rocks are ubiquitous and can be both steep and fragile, making navigating between difficult and deadly. The weather can be brutal: scorching in the summer, with screaming cold winds in the winter. Don’t be fooled by photos of glaring white or dismal grey rocks: their colors change with the shifting light. The soft summer night I visited, rock mounds glowed gold, pale green, shimmering white and mystical coral. But in harsher light, they can look like bleached bones about to claim your own.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The Badlands National Park has three units, two of them on Indian reservations and difficult to access. In considering this, it is important to remember that the mission of our national parks is to preserve “unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values…for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations.”  Sometimes that translates into keeping humans in their fossil-fuel guzzling toys out. One can drive the perimeter of the Park and even hike just about anywhere. The Park is chock full of fossils and may hold some surprises as well. I was impressed that the federal government actually allowed our native Americans to remain in some of our grander terrain, rather than transporting them to more dusty and dismal reservations like the ones that litter the southwest. In fact, the South Unit of the park is held in trust by our federal government for the use and benefit of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. I was impressed that is <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">until<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> I read the caution under the Safety Tips for driving around the South Unit on the Park website: “The area is part of a former bombing range. If you see something like an unexploded ordnance, please report it to the park and do not touch it.” A large portion, 341,726 acres in fact, of the Pine Ridge Reservation was “seized” by the Department of Army for use as a practice bombing range during WWII. The land continued to be used as such from the 1940s through the 1960s. Not sure how creating and maintaining a practice bombing range on reservation lands was justified as a sound fiduciary decision by the trustees.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The White River Visitor Center on the Pine Ridge Reservation looked like it would be an excellent place to learn more about the Lakota heritage there, but it was temporarily closed due to COVID. A good guide to hiking the South Unit by Michael Zimny can be found at<a href="https://www.sdpb.org/blogs/arts-and-culture/how-to-hike-the-badlands-south-unit-corner-to-corner/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> <span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">https://www.sdpb.org/blogs/arts-and-culture/how-to-hike-the-badlands-south-unit-corner-to-corner/</a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">. You can drive the perimeter of the South Unit, but it would make most sense to do it if you are on your way out, heading toward Wind Cave National Park or Mount Rushmore. By the way, if you are heading to Mount Rushmore, I’ve been told again and again that it is well worth the extra time it takes to drive Iron Mountain Road from the south. The good lord willing I’ll make it back to the Badlands soon, but this time I had a different itinerary with an emphasis on avoiding crowds, so I stuck with my original game plan of exploring the North Unit where I had camping reservations and then heading up to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I arrived at my campsite in the Badlands, Number 81, at the edge of the campground, the last one available and in my opinion the very best campsite. It offered unadulterated views of the hills. It was also easy to find in the dark on my way back from the Ranger astronomy program at the amphitheater as I had forgotten my red headlamp. The astronomy program was stellar. The rangers were well-versed, funny and used laser pointers, which proved unbelievably helpful. It was crowded though and even though it was outdoors, that made me nervous in these times of COVID, so I left shortly after the narrative ended and the questions began. Cedar Pass campground was large and packed, but the sites were well-spaced. In the absence of trees for shade, the National Park Service has installed permanent awnings with a back and a roof to cover the picnic tables and serve as a wind barrier, as well as providing shade.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The distance between sites was generous. Potable water was available from taps here and there. The bathroom facilities were relatively clean given the number of people and they have running water. Pay per use showers were also available, but I tend to develop a microorganism phobia in closed damp places and wasn’t feeling dirty enough to give one a try. I’ve got a pretty good system of sponge bathing and Dr. Bronner’s organic peppermint soap was at least providing the illusion of cleanliness. (The orange soap is definitely gentler on the nether regions. They are both all natural and made with essential oils.)<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Cedar Pass is conveniently located on the eastern side of the Badlands Loop Road. At the west end is the town of Wall. You can’t miss the huge billboards for Wall Drug. It’s a tourist town where gas prices were notably higher than in the rest of the state. So, I was a bit concerned about my options when my oil light came on while I was driving the Scenic Loop. I was due for an oil change and was grateful to discover that the town of Philip, South Dakota was only forty minutes from my campsite, on my way to Teddy Roosevelt the next day. I called Philip Motor. They had my filter in stock and would change it for a reasonable price late the next morning, which was perfect. In fact, it turned out to be the most pleasant oil change experience I’ve ever had. I hung out watching the Disney channel in the air-conditioned sales room of the car dealership where I could charge my phone and the courteous staff provided me with cold water as well as occasional updates on the progress of my full-service oil change. I was pretty impressed with Disney’s graphics, though not so much with the landfill material toys they shamelessly advertised.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The evening before, after I arrived and staked claim to my campsite, I drove the Badlands Loop Road where my wishes to see mountain sheep, bison, and of course prairie dogs were fulfilled. Although I’d read that bison have mercurial tempers and can suddenly run toward you at 30 miles per hour, I still wasn’t prepared for what running 30 miles per hour looks like. It’s fast. I was probably annoyingly flagrant in my determination to photograph a close-up, but thankfully I didn’t sufficiently perturb any of these guys to charge.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><img height="392" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/49QF9aBu9792zdSXyjrYSJCiDV3PMB6MGolaTTu2hs01DoE7fxJavJPna7tyADCjbBaZ-dcX-mR785tOLbozXwMT7f1hEPeZzfk1RzljI-eMwtCJn3USlKf3jQmhHDmMz0Zpa1iltfKtzp3uvQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="580" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Bighorn sheep and mountain goats maneuver rugged cliffs with spellbinding agility.<img height="302" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/CRd-rnibLS-r3U10kwCxfoHHUBY2AJjtIA2k4Jl5KFGYvq1hMKCRVHGNJjJWuNFodrvG3Z_cmvJRFHc42wCN9v_sizLQu_1oygfATPNffkCBdH6INuEzi8fTBMQ8eZN0MZ8Sw0H5XUKXdC7SnQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="567" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><img height="351" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/lNO3gUHVdmV2VtZn7fcS1LuakUZcuB6fIVmXrolO7LRNSfBqqUXJzjT1WNI4EE9-3xklyxK75Kozk8wrOiPG1M31uMFRAoMjdwWeNhFezRAKoF8oT5Qe6pmdIHkG5SmT4nT4hGpA5FZJZcfe7w" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="576" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Pronghorn live in the Badlands too, though I didn’t see any. I feel an affection toward pronghorn; they are neither antelope nor deer, but their own species. They can detect movement up to four miles away and run 60 miles per hour! Each year when heavy snows begin falling in the Grand Tetons, the pronghorn there migrate 150 miles to Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin, making a strong case for wildlife corridors.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The campground was quiet, and I slept well. In the morning I hiked a tough, but interesting trail, the Notch Trail. It even had a steep ladder climb. I also took a couple short, scenic walks just past the Ben Reifel Visitor Center heading toward route 90: the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail, the Window Trail and Door Trail and went a bit down Castle Trail, though I had to turn around to make my oil change appointment. I’d like to take the entire Castle Trail, taking a side trip on the Saddle Pass Trail to see the view over the White River Valley and returning via the Medicine Root Trail. If you’d like to visit, but not camp, cabins are available to rent under the auspice of Cedar Pass Lodge; there is a restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well. Although the lodge opened in 1928, the present cabins, built to Gold Level LEED standards were moved onsite in 2013.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><img height="517" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/TTgwHe7FCT5Mos8AxRT8_wWT2gl_wIRPqVQDGQYQwhZcX-H1rVcwXbSR3GIHGpHU6ISebIQ-vlNpVQAPs3bbawAfXrDqoNiW4exOKh6wc4NEyWAiYLUffntHjzFF99qnKDb9euY9WaRu2HwD7w" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="574" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The Badlands offer more than admiring beauty and hiking. It can also open your mind to understanding the past with visual evidence of its bizarre wonders. Imagine encountering a fifty-foot marine lizard with sharp fangs and a killer tail. Or a herd of thunder beasts, mammals averaging eight feet tall and 16 feet long. Or a saber-toothed carnivore the size of a jaguar. The Badlands abounds with fossils. It is finding evidence of the almost unimaginable creatures who once lived here that inspire paleontologists, those who study history through fossils. The paleontology lab in the Ben Reifel Visitor Center is a working lab where you can watch a paleontologist digging a fossil from its surrounding rock.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Over 270 national parks preserve fossils and some, like the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon were created specifically because of the fossils found there. I never really gave much thought to fossils before but talking with the experts in the Badlands lab and then visiting John Day has me on a quest to earn my Junior Ranger Paleontologist pin.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">           <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">

On the Road Summer 2021 Day 5 The Badlands

On the Road Day 5 - The Badlands Photo from The Badlands National Park website. Yellow mounds along Scenic Loop Road. NPS Photo NPS photo S...

Posted by Tiny Dancer / Saturday, May 14, 2022 / No comments /

On the Road Summer 2021 Day 4 Valentine National Wildlife Refuge & the Niobrara Scenic River

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">On the Road - Day 4 Valentine National Wildlife Refuge and the Niobrara Scenic River <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I sipped my coffee on my private balcony. The rising sun promised a mythical day.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="351" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/btR8QBN0Y9WhWoBjBTuNDdEkVHP22WoijlKlqqkw-sUP0Jp7soc6V7VXx7JKtWxUnNNT8ady3lWpPx86BulcIebFruREBqTKPdUUMcYH7I97_tMSzGO0G29hNFnx5WLbxDflSizOASsI0V0kSQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="581" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And did not disappoint.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The US Fish and Wildlife Service manages a number of wildlife refuges, like the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in the Sandhills of north-central Nebraska. Protecting fish and wildlife requires protecting the ecosystems they rely upon. At the core of the mission at Valentine is protecting the prairie grass ecosystem for bison and the many migrating birds and pollinators. The refuge is home to 270 species of birds, 59 species of mammals and 22 species of reptiles and amphibians. Heading north toward the town of Valentine, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">pull off on the right of northbound Route 83 for a short trail showcasing prairie grasses and taking you to an overlook of the wetlands.<span style="background-color: white; color: #414b50; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> It will open your eyes to the many vastly different grasses and the unique beauty of the prairie. <span style="background-color: white; color: #414b50; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Watch out for snakes!<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="404" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/tPEG4C35jRkY_Yeo7r3VxBgN01G9vct9ynMHKjImeonOyziZ6ij70OS1W8HrBMPrA2oztzq442i0yjpkJy66vLQv423Akw4HvarERSxnTKuuom85rzBvJWXQTsrllME_35Czs2ddyrKCZVcVdA" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="564" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="352" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/yRGQEtMVp4dEHUblN302XcGngqlg9QBur2aq9qqZm5ipzuJAKRh97QubYc3zaSL9W5cCfe0zjxPaNBCdHTYS_W-noavU-PeK-bb2SCWx5TjL0QzDpRfANNYgLsy4BPROaI7snxaAr7hdl6KqYw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="564" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="378" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/hh2f9fsZZkQABkOdrcZFo-0aFr2zTsh1u8bCagb2EWIR37Vq66va1pI--5w1-YtejrmPJ5B8r02YwXH8qYLL813BrAsgcRRYd0XNWtNoIcfhcw1KALPndTNW4J9CcDmv-GDeuogvo198Zjjj0A" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="566" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="376" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Rml_9WlIjdIW6Knz5NG6PzIWKcGySfqOLllK5fEIW3wUUKnEAdh5Q2gwyEmg8rpZ_gJxPjitt_DVpJEYx_r2iR8dz2qhRa16sfFEhOsbhz2wh359pK2r5nKJYOkCBsQB3v8vEX-XIZUCsL8Zig" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="561" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="379" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/0euteTb2GJ0j31-aDUfsyUoW9Xqy3EMNyzkmL_L53v7Fh7lkoQazYPmqeve0COg7mSu1GIpZ8Re0m4vKjh2xnRCRsYYz_zI18k43xc6NVh1Cu0YzLSz_KXjWrk2UnmHvkMTROD3C7uRiHbaruw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="567" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The small town of Valentine was just waking. I was the only visitor at the National Park Service Visitor Center. The volunteer let me into a back room to watch the movie alone. Since the pandemic began, many visitor centers have been closed or their offerings cut back. A painful casualty has been the movies introducing the parks, monuments and other federal sanctuaries like the Niobrara National Scenic River. Some of these movies are incredible.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The Niobrara River begins in the high plains of eastern Wyoming and cuts through layers of silt and sand formed from volcanic eruptions and erosion of the Rocky Mountains, creating colorful bluffs and cascading waterfalls. It winds 535 miles before emptying into the Missouri River in northeastern Nebraska. Six biomes converge here: mixed grass, tall grass and sandhill prairies and northern boreal, western coniferous and eastern deciduous forests. I wandered through the exhibits and took my Junior Ranger book with me to complete, asked about the Fort Niobrara Wildlife Refuge and generally, got pretty excited about the landscape I was about to drift through on a kayak. I signed in at Brewer’s Outfitters in downtown Valentine and stopped at a couple places to view the refuge from different perspectives on my way to the landing site. I wanted to hear an elk bugling for a mate. Mating season would start next week. Maybe a young bull out there was antsy and would just give a shout out to see if a female was out there listening for him.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">But I did not hear an elk.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I wanted to see bison. I like bison. The buffalo is sacred in my book. Buffalo brings abundance.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">But I did not see any bison. I would see plenty soon enough. Not millions and millions like there were on the prairie before the white man’s westward expansion and deliberate decimation. But I would see bison in the Dakotas.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A river guide picked me up from the landing where I parked my car and took me upriver to launch. We had a meaningful conversation. During the school year he teaches children from the nearby Indian reservation. He was pretty concerned about the meth problem on the reservations and the backslide the pandemic meant to these kids.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The sun was high and blazing hot already. I lathered up with sunblock, doublechecked the sport strap on my shades, slipped my phone in a waterproof case and packed my water bottle and crackers in my daypack, destined to get soaked on the floor of the kayak within minutes. I had my swimsuit on under my tie-dyed sun dress and a white long sleeve blouse over it all. My old wide-brimmed cowboy hat had become quite squished and no longer provided as much protection as it once did. Eyes scanning the river, I hopped in my kayak and shoved off. I did not want to be near anyone who would distract my silent reverie with nature. And I wanted to linger. I had only two more reservations to make before the wedding in Stanley a month out. Camping that night in the Badlands and the next night at Teddy Roosevelt. I could make them both easily even if I simply drifted.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Eyes open to the convergence of biomes, I would paddle to one bank, then the other to photograph the delightful juxtaposition of plant species, many I had never before seen. But what really stole my soul were the pink sandstone bluffs, evoking dreams of prehistoric times. It was a magical float through the refuge. I slid up onto sandbars a couple times and beached my rig while I dove into the sparkling current to cool off.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><img height="351" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/FXuU9S0jSnG_ufaQDbJPhCs-Mp2W7UGPlaFA6iV7jgXeQPpZ0kj0l4_9kghHmGVZbDkOhicEe3uPI_T-tEVmkhVA2M4ouhZtXYXq4cjsI01CAXP2yz636jeuF_N-_pUIwvvOmqwsB6DGXRzbDw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="585" /> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Afterward, after I let the broiling heat escape from my car, changed into dry clothes and shoved my wet sneakers under the seat, I drove down to Smith State Park to check out the waterfalls, the tallest in Nebraska. I’m not sure what I was expecting. It’s not like Nebraska is known for its waterfalls. It was pleasant enough. The young woman in the gift shop who directed me to the bathroom was engaging and upbeat, but still, I rather regretted subjecting my windows and headlamps to another long, dusty road. It did serve to postpone actually leaving the refuge before I was emotionally prepared as I had only just fallen in love with it.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I would still get to my campsite in the Badlands enough in advance of the setting sun that I could explore a bit. Perhaps drive some of the scenic loop. It would probably be very pretty as the sun set and the rocks shifted colors.<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">

On the Road Summer 2021 Day 4 Valentine National Wildlife Refuge & the Niobrara Scenic River

On the Road - Day 4 Valentine National Wildlife Refuge and the Niobrara Scenic River I sipped my coffee on my private balcony. The rising s...

Posted by Tiny Dancer / Saturday, May 21, 2022 / No comments /

On the Road Summer 2021 Days 6 & 7 Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Posted by Tiny Dancer / Wednesday, May 18, 2022 / No comments /

On the Road Summer 2021 Day 5 The Badlands

Posted by Tiny Dancer / Saturday, May 14, 2022 / No comments /

On the Road Summer 2021 Day 4 Valentine National Wildlife Refuge & the Niobrara Scenic River

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