North Dakota, West to East

Since we have enjoyed ourselves at other national parks in the past and there always seems to be a lot to do in the parks we thought we would try Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the western border of North Dakota.  There is a South Unit and a North Unit to the park.  We entered the South Unit.  Normally, we like to stay right in the park and check out the ranger programs maybe do a few suggested hikes in the brochure.  It so happens we tried to enter Theodore Roosevelt on a Friday night around 5 PM, big mistake.  No room at the inn – campground is full.  Who would have thought -Theodore Roosevelt NP in North Dakota is a popular place to go on the weekend – campground is FULL!  Really?  We ended up staying a mile down the road outside the park in Medora.  We went into the park the next day and traveled the 36-mile Scenic Loop Drive and saw lots of bison, prairie dogs and most exciting, wild horses!

Disgusted by the summer crowds that seem to be everywhere we move on to Bismarck North Dakota.  We stayed in the municipal campground there, it is run by the town itself.  We are finding that we really like the town campgrounds.  They usually have showers, are close to town, sometimes walking distance and normally a great deal.  In Bismarck the trailer sites with hookups were full so we stayed in the tent area for $12.  It was pretty quiet and they had showers – what a deal! Humidity was high in Bismarck, in the 80% range.

Town Campground, Bismarck, North Dakota

Oil is still a driver of business here.  Tim started a conversation with a couple guys at the laundromat who work on the oil pipeline.  They work six days a week.  Sunday is their only day off so they had to do their laundry!  As the construction of the pipeline moves they have to move with it, living in a fifth wheel along the way.  A lot of that time is spent out in the middle of nowhere so they were happy to be near Bismarck, a real town where there are services.  There’s an alternative lifestyle for you, chasing the money, working the oil.  The guy we talked to was married with kids and grandkids but only sees them once in a while.

Agriculture is also big in North Dakota. We drove across endless flat fields of corn, sunflowers, flax seed.  Fargo was the next stop.  It is the biggest city in North Dakota and actually had a restaurant with organic and vegetarian food which made me very happy.  Healthy food has been hard to come by!  Since it was my birthday and it was hot and humid I celebrated by staying in a hotel with AC and a shower.  Working our way across North Dakota we end up on the eastern border in Grand Forks.  We were able to meet up with some friends who moved away from the Phoenix area a couple years ago.  They shared their small town North Dakota lifestyle with us.  In contrast to big city Phoenix, they said the people in small town North Dakota are very nice, friendly and caring, however there is not a lot to do there and very few restaurant choices which I experienced first hand.

North Dakota shares a border with Minnesota, divided by the Red River.  While visiting Grand Forks, North Dakota we actually stayed on the Minnesota side of the river at Red River State Recreation Area in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. The facilities seemed more modern than a lot that we have encountered in our travels. What we discovered is the buildings are newer because this whole area was flooded in the late 90’s and had to be rebuilt. There used to be a neighborhood where the campground is located today and all the homes here were destroyed.  Then the park was built in it’s place and they actually left the streets in place when they put in the campground.  It was strange to have wide paved roads in a campground.  Other buildings in the area are new as well like the public library that was built in 1999.

Moving east, Minnesota is next where we should start to see some hills.