All That and a Cerulean Warbler!

2023-07-03
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

Today we headed to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Unit, in northwestern North Dakota. It was a few hours from Jamestown but we picked up an hour with the time zone. We got there around 11:30 to do the Caprock Coulee hike. By now we had learned that a coulee is a drainage area; long car rides bring up many questions and now that we all have the internet we answer them. But I digress.

It had rained earlier in the morning, and we discovered that TRNP-North has mud. It's not that the mud was deep; there was about half-an-inch to an inch of mud on top of dry dirt. But this was sticky, slippery mud. The kind of mud that clings to your shoe so that the heaviest thing on your foot is neither the shoe or the the sock but the mud, and it's not close. More importantly it makes the trail slippery, and some of the hills were a real challenge to climb. Sometimes it was three steps up, one slide back, and start over. We met a young couple and compared mud notes. I wanted to make sure that they knew there were some steep descents in the mud, but let's face it, downhill is easier. No matter what you do, good or bad, you're going to end up in the same place: at the bottom. And since he was already covered in mud from a previous slip I wasn't worried about him getting dirty. Luckily by the time we had gone about 2 miles everything had dried up and it was no longer a problem. The views are absolutely worth the effort.

Climb enough muddy hills and you earn the views
Climb enough muddy hills and you earn the views
View from a ridgeline
View from a ridgeline
A formation in the Coulee section
A formation in the Coulee section
Most of the hike is on the heights.
Most of the hike is on the heights.
Walking the ridgeline
Walking the ridgeline

Anyone who read my blog last year (and there were handfuls of you) is probably tired of buffalo pictures. While we saw buffalo in the park, we weren't in a good position to photograph them and even if we had, we know you've seen enough. So instead here's a nice sheep and a bird to fulfill the request for bird pictures.

Big horn sheep down in the valley
Big horn sheep down in the valley
My first cerulean warbler. They aren't the best at camoflage.
My first cerulean warbler. They aren't the best at camoflage.

After the hike and some scenic viewpoints we headed north to Williston ND for the night. Suffice it to say that it's in the northwest corner of North Dakota and has a big enough population to support a dozen hotels. I don't really know how they fill them, but they had plenty of room for us tonight. There was a Philly Cheesesteak on the menu for supper which we opted against. You can get a fine sandwich just as long as you don't expect it to resemble what we have back home. Val blew the mind of the waiter when she explained that Philly Cheesesteaks are usually made with cheese whiz. Cheesesteak rubes.

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