Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Unit

Another chilly morning, 28 degrees when I got up, but the forecast called for 70 degrees today.  Nice!

We drove the 1.5 hours to the North unit of the national park.  The Caprock Coulee Loop Trail is listed by several sources as the top trail in the park and we soon found out why.  Most of the trail follows ridge lines or climbs up an over buttes and offers commanding views of the badlands below.  We were treated to several different perspectives on the Little Missouri River far below, as well as the colorful badlands rock formations.

Again, a perfect day for a hike, cloudless and in the low 70’s.  We couldn’t ask for better weather.

This was our lunch spot.  Room with a view.

As far as viewing wildlife in the park, that was no problem at all.  In fact, the bison seemed to enjoy hanging out on the roads, and would just look at you balefully as you approached in the car.  

This is our road.  What are you going to do about it?

The road through the North Unit is an exercise in contrasts.  The last several miles run right along the edge of the badlands, with the badlands rock formations on one side, and a vast expanse of grassland on the other side.  The difference is quite abrupt.  I was standing in one location when I took the following two pictures.  I just pointed the camera one way for the first picture and the other way for the second picture.

Camera pointed one way

Camera pointed the other way

Was it worth the 3-hour round-trip drive? Yes it was.  This was a delightful trail with some awesome views of the badlands.

Once we finished here, we decided to put a few miles on.  We crossed the border into Montana and drove for another 1.5 hours.  Total miles today, 313.  We stopped for the night at sort of a mystery spot.  I have a name but have no idea what it looks like because we arrived after dark and the darkness is near absolute here in Eastern Montana.  The name is Matthews Recreational Area and it is on BLM land and borders the Yellowstone River.  We’re about 9 miles east of Miles City.  Maybe we’ll see the river tomorrow and found out what this place really looks like.  All part of the adventure, right?

This was a very quiet spot.  About 3 miles off the interstate, completely dark, and the only sounds were the sounds of the Yellowstone River.    The view of the stars was amazing.  We could even see the Milky Way.

This was a quiet spot. Until the train rumbled by.  The track is only a few hundred yards from here and there’s a crossing that requires a whistle.  So several times already while we were here it started out as a low rumble that grew in intensity until the night was split by the whistle.  Each train engineer seems to have his own pattern.  One long blast.  Two shorter blasts followed by a staccato blast, followed by a really long blast.  I think it’s each person’s signature that they leave at each crossing.  I’m sure if we were here long enough we could identify the individual engineers by the noise they make.

And the trains here seem to be really long, so the rumble lasts for quite a while.