The Theodore Roosevelt National Park (South Unit) had several open spaces. Thus we also claimed our 34th (of the 46) land accessible National Parks in the contiguous states.
We were not there long before this big fella wandered through our campsite.
He was headed toward the open grassland across from us. I gave him a decent head start before checking out the area.
No sign of him! I did not go very far, he was too big to hide. If he laid down for a nap, I figured he deserved one – undisturbed. We settled in for a quiet evening with the plan of checking out some of the trails in the morning. Fran added North Dakota to our map of states Rufus has taken us to.
We have to do something unique to the state or spend the night in the state to claim it on our map. We’ve now spent at least one night in all the states west of the Mississippi.
There was a light rain in the morning, sufficient so that we abandoned any hiking plans and headed for the VC. We took a brief look around and a tour of Teddy’s cabin and hoped for better luck at the Painted Canyon.
But, luck was not with us, just the now heavy rain as we passed by Painted Canyon.
Suzanne in her Take to the Highway blog mentioned the North Unit should not be missed. Her experience can be found HERE. Alas we missed it :(
We continued east to Bismarck and our first Walmart night camping of the trip.
We parked on the side as directed by Wally Security. At first the spot didn’t look too good, but it was quiet. And Fran had a nice spot to practice a few of her fairway shots.
I’m sure there is more to Fargo than the woodchipper, but that’s the only reason we stopped. We had not seen the movie Fargo in awhile, but it was available to view on Amazon video. Still fun? … ubetchya.
The real/deal wood chipper from the movie. North Dakota claims to be the last state most folks visit when trying to collect all 50 states. There is a ‘Best for Last Club’ poster to take your selfie with.
Goodbye North Dakota, we need to continue east. Despite a poorly timed rain day we enjoyed our visit. Certainly an inconvenience but No Bad Days.
