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