Made it to Medora

Let’s take a fall drive to North Dakota! Our timing was interesting because the government apparently shut down while we were on the road. Nice time to visit a National Park, right?

We stopped at a small Montana state campground late last night. Had our usual stellar night sleep in the van. Here I am all coffee'd up and ready to hit the road while Steve takes out the trash in the background!

We wanted to stop by Pompey’s Pillar, a Lewis & Clark historic site where apparently Clark’s signature vandalizing a rock is the only remaining physical evidence of their expedition. Unfortunately, the gate was closed, which we assumed was due to the government shutdown. Alas, later that day we realized the road always closes on September 30th. #offseasontravel

So instead we just had a lovely burrito picnic.

After the long but Montana-beautiful double day drive, we finally made it to the Teddy Roosevelt National Park entrance in Medora, ND just before sunset. Only the Visitors Center was closed per the shutdown, so we were lucky.

I picked out a few possible sunset-viewing spots in my pre-travel research, so we hoofed it to try to catch it. Of course, even though we were quickly losing the sun, we had to stop a few times to see our favorite wildlife animal, the bison, along the way.

As we were nearing our target spot I feared we had missed the light. But Steve found an awesome trail right along the canyon’s edge and up the hills to the perfect vantage point to see the changing skies. Perfect timing after all! And quite a workout as we scampered up the hills. Within minutes the sky was on fire.

We had the entire place to ourselves. There’s our van with Josie inside all alone down in the parking lot.

Once we satisfied my sunset goals, we had a leisurely drive to get to our camp park in a nearby town. Again, the bison came out to greet us as the remaining light faded.

Tomorrow more rocks, more bison, more hikes, more sunsets!