Sunday, September 30, 2018

September Trip

This year we took our September RV Trip to North Dakota
to see Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  
We started out with friends of ours, Mary Anne and Ron, 
stopping in Missoula to visit Ron's sister and 
brother-in-law

Missoula, MT
 The Smokejumpers Visitor Center has tours for the 
public but not after Labor Day.  Ron's brother-in-law
has some clout and got us a private tour since we were
there after Labor Day.
 This is what a Lookout Tower looks like.
They spot the fires here
The jumpers sew or mend their own gear
 This is what a jumper's load looks like
 Drying out parachutes
 The jumpers fold the parachutes on these tables.
The folded parachutes are put in the cubby holes
behind the tables on the left
 These boxes are dropped into the fire area for the 
smoke jumpers to use while they are fighting the fire
 Our tour guide showing us what is in those boxes
 Hand saws, at the top of the pack, are used 
They aren't allowed to use chainsaws in the forest
 Food supplies included in the boxes
 They can put their gear on in less than 2 minutes
 and board this plane
 
 While in Missoula we visited the Air Museum too
where the jumpers sit in the planes
 and since it was there we visited the 
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation 



Then we headed for North Dakota and
met up with Mel and Gary in Livingston, MT
 This is still Montana,  pretty country
 Entering North Dakota
 Fairly flat
 with some Bad Lands of their own
 Trees were starting to change color
Theodore Roosevelt National Park South Unit
We hiked out to the Petrified Forrest and
saw some wild horses along the way
Petrified tree stumps
It's amazing that these trees can turn to rock
 All those little things that look like wood chips are
petrified wood chips, little rocks now

 petrified root

A buffalo way out on the left with Mary Anne and Ron
 Not sure what this is but we saw a lot of these circles
I'm thinking they were mud bubbles that popped and 
hardened

 we saw lots of buffalo
 Roosevelt's Maltese Cabin was moved to the 
visitors center and restored.  He built this cabin
when he came to North Dakota to hunt
 Putting a Maltese Cross at the end of one of the 
logs put into the wall
 The cabin has actual furniture in the rooms
 Lots of Prairie Dog Towns
 Lunch Time
 Peaceful Valley Ranch
The only original ranch house remaining in the 
South Unit of the Nat'l Park
 Fat and happy prairie dogs

 Boicourt Overlook



 We were getting a lot of smoke in the evenings
which made for pretty sunsets

Nice bathrooms at the campground
oops sorry Walt!

We visited the North Unit of the Park the next day



 The Little Missouri River at the 
Oxbow Overlook





 More of the Little Missouri River from 
River Bend Overlook


 Different rock formations
 Cannonball concretions are very strange



 worth taking a lot of pictures of obviously!!
 Trees grew in the valleys between the mountains

 Chateau DeMores in Medora, ND
The Marquis de Mores built this house as a 
hunting lodge and for his family's summer home
 This huge house was across the valley from the Chateau
 The Chateau had wide hallways
 servants quarters on the second floor.
They brought their servants with them every summer
Chamber pots under the beds
a lot of the original furniture in the house
 Guest rooms
 Main area of the house
 The Marquis' wife's bedroom
 and sitting area
 Porch overlooking the property
 and stables
The smoke stack is all that's left of the meat packing plant
the Marquis built to send beef East in refrigerated rail cars



Lots of Sunflower fields in North Dakota

Next stop South Dakota
Lisa and Leslie came out to spend the day with us
I'm sure they have seen these sites before but
it was nice hanging out with them
 Different formations than Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico



Behind Leslie's shoulder on the left is the hole where
early Americans felt wind rushing out of the rocks

Cookie after lunch
 The RV park in South Dakota had trees
 Don't know why we can't get rv sites together when
we reserved them back in January
 Mount Rushmore of course
 It was supposed to look like this but the veins in the
granite wouldn't let them go any further down than faces
The campground was pretty

Spent the next day in Deadwood
Old west town
 Noted for Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane hanging
out and dying here but not necessarily at the same time


 Lots of saloons



View of Deadwood from the cemetery
It's quite a hike up thru the cemetery

Can't visit South Dakota with out visiting Lisa's family
 They are an active bunch
Their garden
Just picked fresh veggies
Last time we were here Brianne wasn't born yet
She'll be 9 in December
 Room to ride bikes in the side yard
 and the front yard

Brianne
Hannah and Leslie showing their skills
They move as fast as my grandkids
Smor'es,  Yummmm
The only ones we got on the whole trip
Thanks girls!!

Last day in South Dakota

You walk along this path to that opening and
 you look down on this
Gary, Mel, Walt, Mary Anne, and Ron
The rocks just stick right up out of the flat land

 Big Horn Sheep

 Then there are these flat lands of Prairie Dogs
 and you walk over to an overlook and see this



Imagine the pioneers traveling along and running into
these drop offs
Can't drive by Wall Drug and not stop for a minute or two
 Saw a red fox in the campground one afternoon

On to Wyoming

Windy and warm
 Campground with the North Platte River thru it

Ron looking for river rocks
 smoky evening
 Pretty homesteads on the river
The mountains as we were heading toward the campground
 But the smoke was bad enough as we got closer to the
Tetons, we could barely see them

 Still smokey closer but we could see them
 
 Jackson, WY



 We asked for the smoke to leave and got clouds instead
Didn't see very many of these but a few
Jenny Lake
 Moulton Barn
Schwabacher Landing

Wildlife
Oxbow Bend
Jackson Lake
Colter Bay at the campground
Wildlife in the campground
 Of course, the day we leave ... no smoke, no clouds
 Fall colors

Fields
 Snake River from a rest stop

We spent a couple days in Filer, ID
to see some of the sites
Vardis Fisher Pond in Filer, crystal clear
 Vardis Fisher built this house for his wife.
He's the author of Jeremiah Johnson


View of the Snake River
with a huge house being built on the river
Pelican in the water
 Beautiful falls in Magic Valley

Bridal Veil Falls
Fish pens where Gary used to work
4 foot sturgeon
 watch out boys
Free base jumpers off the Perrine Bridge
Last month at Michelle's wedding I posted pictures
of Shoshone Falls.  This month no water going over

After leaving Filer we stopped two nights
One in Baker City, OR
Cute campgroung
 and one night in Prosser, WA
to take advantage of some wine tasting

Hard to go home after such an amazing trip
but we had a great time, great weather, and great
traveling companions