My First Park

2018-09-03
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

It's day 2.5 and I arrived at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. As Julius Caesar would have said, "Theodorus est divisa in partes tres," which roughly translated means that there are three parts to the park. There is a South portion and a North portion which are about 68 miles apart as the car drives. The third part is Elkhorn Ranch, Teddy (I'm sure he'd want me to call him Teddy) Roosevelt's ranch that is up some unpaved, steep roads that are prone to wash out, and when you get there only the stone foundations are left. With this much information in the brochure I decided to limit my trip to just the south portion.

I stopped by the Painted Canyon Visitor's Center because it was on my way in. There I got my map and went ahead and hiked around the short trail there. This is where I figured out that the elevation was a little higher than home. I think it's 3500-4000 feet, which is fine when going down hill but a couple steep ups and you notice it. I filed this information under "important safety tip" as I enjoyed the Painted Canyon. It was cool to get close to the formations.

I then continued on to the main part of the park and my campground, checked in, and set up my tent.

Since it was still early afternoon (I gained yet another hour heading west; bonus!) I explored the scenic loop. First stop is prairie dogs for the kids.

I also hiked up Buck Hill and out to Wind Canyon as well as stopping at various picture points around the loop.

By the time that was done it was supper time, so I headed back to the campsite and almost started dinner before the thunder gave me pause.

I noticed that I set up the tent but didn't put the rain fly on it because of the wind. The thunder gave me the indication that it was a good time to rectify that, so I added the rain fly plus a gallon of water to make sure the wind would not blow it into a chasm. I finished in the nick of time and I jumped in my car to wait out the hail. Yes, it started as a hail storm, with grape-sized hail and not the more dangerous golf ball-sized stuff. Speaking of which, how did people measure hail before golf was invented? At any rate, after 30 minutes of hail and torrential rain it blew past. I talked to a few people there who said they'd been camping all their lives and never had hail hit their tent. Luckily my tent was fine although my placement turned out to be a few feet from ideal so I dealt with some puddling. The rest of the night was spent doing camping chores.

It was 91 degrees when the storm hit, and when I got up the next morning it was 50. I tend to run warm so I generally prefer the lower end of that range, especially for hiking. For my climatically opposite friends, it went from a light jacket to long johns in just a few hours. My camping gear was up to this, but I once again proved that I'm a greenhorn. I woke up plenty warm thanks to my sleeping gear, but I realized that I had nothing but shorts and a tee shirt to wear when I left the tent. That's a bit light even for me at 50 degrees when not on the trail. I did recall a niece or nephew telling me to bring sweats (which I did) but I had forgotten their admonishment to put them in the tent at night. Morning temperatures are generally cooler, it seems. We will see if I learned anything tomorrow night.

There is some good news, everyone: the camp chair I use is one of the short ones that sits six inches or so above the ground. I can actually use it inside the tent, which is where I'm typing this up even though it will be days before it makes it to your eyes because this is not an iTent. So, good news, but not great news.

Driving Distance: 416 miles in 6 hours

Total miles driven: 1699

Hiking distance: 3 miles