What I did on my summer vacation (part I: les mauvaises terres a traverser)
So after CMS Regina, the original plan was to barnstorm around the western great lakes for a bit. But the mathematicians I would've visited were all gone for the summer, so I took a more western route.
The last interesting talk ended Monday at 11:30, so after a final visit to Tim Horton's I left town. The plan had been to start with Moose Mountain provincial park, but this got scratched because some sort of oil conference in Williston, North Dakota was filling all the hotels within about a 200-mile radius. So I had to push farther south than I'd wanted. I got to the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt national park at about 6:30 central time. The park entrance is about a half-mile north of the bridge over the Little Missouri, and the bridge was closing for construction at 7:00. "Caulk your wagon and float it" didn't seem like a good idea, so I drove two or three miles in, then turned around and continued southward. There's some spectacular terrain up there; I would've liked to have more time.
The south unit of the park is about 60 miles away and in the mountain time zone, so again I arrived at about 6:30. I mention this because the ranger stations and visitor centers at both units closed at 6:00, so not only did I have no way to give them my money, the NPS has no evidence I was there. It was light past 9:00, so they probably miss a fair number of people like me in the summer.
The south unit is dominated by a 20-mile loop road with a bunch of short trails coming off of it. Some take you to look at impressive canyons, and others take you up high to overlook the badlands carved out by the Little Missouri. I didn't remember that I had a camera until nearly sundown (and also it turns out the ipad defaults plus my lack of skills do a lousy job at pointing downwards), so generally no pictures for you. (Well, here's the top of the ridgeline trail.)
The main differences between the badlands at Roosevelt park and the badlands at Badlands park to the south are threefold. First, they're smaller. Second, there's more and more varied plant life. Third, there's fauna. The prairie dogs will totally run out onto the road to pose for you during the day, as will the bison at night. Perhaps they are all vampire bison? Bisonpires?
The sun finished going setting, and I went south towards the Cheyenne river and the official Badlands.
Tuesday was an important day in the outside world: There was a rare transit of Venus in the evening (D'oh!), and also some important elections (D'oh!). There was nothing to do but wait, so: Badlands:
The badlands go on for miles. The local towns are Wall (home of Wall Drug) and Interior, so of course the features are creatively named:
Door:
Window:
Notch:
Window probably gets its name because, well, look down. On the other hand, you can walk right through Door, and the trail supposedly continues for a mile to an impressive canyon. But I wanted to get to Notch, so I didn't make the attempt.
The trail to Notch goes about a quarter-mile through a dry creek-bed,then up. (That rope-ladder thing keeps getting steeper off the top of the screen. It was no fun coming back down.) Then it goes along narrow ridges and has a couple of scrambles around what I'm guessing are deadly drops. Eventually I came to a place where the trail wasn't marked anymore. It was still obvious how to proceed, but it was also 8:45 and heading back in the dark seemed like idiocy. Reluctantly, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Disappointing, but still a pretty good view.
Back to the hotel, turned on the TV. Turned off the TV. Stayed up ridiculously late into the morning waiting for results in a state senate race. Slept in, then moved on into the Black Hills.
The last interesting talk ended Monday at 11:30, so after a final visit to Tim Horton's I left town. The plan had been to start with Moose Mountain provincial park, but this got scratched because some sort of oil conference in Williston, North Dakota was filling all the hotels within about a 200-mile radius. So I had to push farther south than I'd wanted. I got to the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt national park at about 6:30 central time. The park entrance is about a half-mile north of the bridge over the Little Missouri, and the bridge was closing for construction at 7:00. "Caulk your wagon and float it" didn't seem like a good idea, so I drove two or three miles in, then turned around and continued southward. There's some spectacular terrain up there; I would've liked to have more time.
The south unit of the park is about 60 miles away and in the mountain time zone, so again I arrived at about 6:30. I mention this because the ranger stations and visitor centers at both units closed at 6:00, so not only did I have no way to give them my money, the NPS has no evidence I was there. It was light past 9:00, so they probably miss a fair number of people like me in the summer.
The south unit is dominated by a 20-mile loop road with a bunch of short trails coming off of it. Some take you to look at impressive canyons, and others take you up high to overlook the badlands carved out by the Little Missouri. I didn't remember that I had a camera until nearly sundown (and also it turns out the ipad defaults plus my lack of skills do a lousy job at pointing downwards), so generally no pictures for you. (Well, here's the top of the ridgeline trail.)
The main differences between the badlands at Roosevelt park and the badlands at Badlands park to the south are threefold. First, they're smaller. Second, there's more and more varied plant life. Third, there's fauna. The prairie dogs will totally run out onto the road to pose for you during the day, as will the bison at night. Perhaps they are all vampire bison? Bisonpires?
The sun finished going setting, and I went south towards the Cheyenne river and the official Badlands.
Tuesday was an important day in the outside world: There was a rare transit of Venus in the evening (D'oh!), and also some important elections (D'oh!). There was nothing to do but wait, so: Badlands:
The badlands go on for miles. The local towns are Wall (home of Wall Drug) and Interior, so of course the features are creatively named:
Door:
Window:
Notch:
Window probably gets its name because, well, look down. On the other hand, you can walk right through Door, and the trail supposedly continues for a mile to an impressive canyon. But I wanted to get to Notch, so I didn't make the attempt.
The trail to Notch goes about a quarter-mile through a dry creek-bed,then up. (That rope-ladder thing keeps getting steeper off the top of the screen. It was no fun coming back down.) Then it goes along narrow ridges and has a couple of scrambles around what I'm guessing are deadly drops. Eventually I came to a place where the trail wasn't marked anymore. It was still obvious how to proceed, but it was also 8:45 and heading back in the dark seemed like idiocy. Reluctantly, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Disappointing, but still a pretty good view.
Back to the hotel, turned on the TV. Turned off the TV. Stayed up ridiculously late into the morning waiting for results in a state senate race. Slept in, then moved on into the Black Hills.