Week 4 Journals

Day 22 July 13,2002 Saturday-Fargo, ND to Bismarck, ND ( miles driven 261)  

     
From Fargo we headed west on Interstate 94 towards Bismarck, ND at around 9:00 am. One of the signs on the road advertised the worlds largest buffalo at Jamestown, ND which was around 100 miles down the road. You could see the Buffalo from the highway and we pulled in to get a closer look. It wound up to be in a town museum area called Frontier Village and it also turned out that the town was celebrating the 6th birthday of "White Cloud" the albino buffalo. These animals are very rare and the Buffalo Museum here keeps a herd, of which White Cloud is one. We found out later that there had been a parade and everything which we had missed while on the road. Frontier Village is a collection of old ND buildings that have been moved to this site and put up as museum displays. Entrance is for free but there are numerous donation boxes around. The church was very nicely done inside and so was the little schoolhouse. At the schoolhouse we learned that Louis l' Amour the prolific writer of western novels and singer Peggy Lee came from Jamestown. There was one whole room in another building dedicated to Louis l' Amour. Two guys in front of the general store were cooking up buffalo burgers and we decided to make these our lunch. They were $2.50 each. There was a line but we got to talking with some people in the line. Mom pointed out a woman standing two behind me in a white dress wearing a North Dakota ribbon across the front. I assumed she was Miss North Dakota and asked her when she was leaving for Atlantic City. She said that she was going to Hawaii and compete in the Mrs. America contest. I told her that I really thought she was Miss ND. She said that for that kind thought I could go to the front of the line and she would buy the buffalo burger. The largest buffalo is one of many big animal statues that are scattered throughout ND. We are going to see a 40 foot high cow in New Salem, ND. Jamestown was a great place to stop. The natives were very friendly and the expanse of the prairie was pretty.

From Jamestown we drove to Mandan, ND which is beyond Bismarck to go to the Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. This park houses three major exhibits - the Custer house and barracks, the Mandan Village exhibit called On a Slant, and another military exhibit. This fort was the site of George A. Custer's departure for the Little Big Horn. He did not return from this venture. The Custer area contains four reproduced buildings. None of the original buildings remain because after the fort was abandoned in the 1890's, the settlers in the area stripped all the buildings of the wood, etc. for their own needs in construction. The Custer house is the third reproduction for the first one burned down while Custer was here and the second one was torn down by settlers. The state has now built another replica which is supposed to look just like the house did before Custer's leaving. The tour was done by a young college student in period dress and she played the part of an army laundress. She would not get out of the 1870's character while inside the house but answered a lot of questions outside. She even gave mom and me a private tour of the barracks. The inside of the Custer House is beautifully restored. There are many artifacts inside which were owned by George A. and his wife Libby.

From the Custer exhibit we went to the Mandan Village (On a Slant Village) to learn about the Mandan's. The Mandan's lived in large communities in log and earth covered structures. The Mandan's were a matriarchal society in that the wife owned the home. She could divorce her husband by merely throwing his belongings outside the dwelling. The site of this village on the banks of the Missouri River was abandoned by the Mandan's in the 1780's due to a smallpox epidemic which wiped out approximately 10,000 people.  They did meet Lewis and Clark here but the expedition was taken about 40 miles north where the Mandan's had rebuilt another village. The guide here was another young college student who did an excellent job of explaining everything.

We learned that the Park was putting on a melodrama comedy at 7:30 PM in one of the buildings. After settling in at the motel and going for dinner we returned to the fort for the show. It was a fun evening with lots of laughs. It was another fun day.

Church at Frontier Village, Jamestown, ND	The biggest Buffalo at Jamestown,ND	The Custer House at Fort Abraham Lincoln	Interior of Custer House	Reproduction of a Mandan Home

Day 23July 14,2002 Sunday,  Bismarck, ND to Medora, ND ( miles driven 228)   

We went for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. The first breakfast, breakfast in about two weeks as we were getting tired of continental fare at the motels. The strange thing with the cracker Barrel was that nothing could be sold in the store part of the restaurant before 12:00 noon. I guess North Dakota has blue laws. Then it was on to the interstate to continue westward. At New Salem we pulled off the road to go and see New Salem Sue. Sue is a cow that is about 40 feet high overlooking the highway from a bluff. Interesting site with spectacular views all around. Further up the highway was a sign - Enchanted Highway - exit 72. Mom looked it up in the book we have called "Eccentric America" and sure enough it was there. The enchanted highway is a road which a local metal sculptor has placed some large metal sculptures on the roadside. We rode through miles of nothingness to come to the first one "Grasshopper" This was a huge grouping with a large grasshopper and a few small ones scattered around. Further up was a Pheasant (birds) family and then a Teddy Roosevelt on horseback profile and the last one was a tin replica of a family. All very nicely done. There was one small town called Lefor which looked deserted in the 100 degree heat. We saw a garden with a running sprinkler but no humans. 

For lunch we stopped at a cafe in the town of Regent. One of the locals struck up a conversation with me and invited mom and myself to stick around for the evenings video of a miracle in Africa. A man had died and been embalmed and the brought back to life. We had other plans for the evening and politely declined the invitation. We headed back up to the interstate via  town called New England, ND. (strange) This was a larger town than Regent and there was not one person outside. At Dickinson we picked up the interstate and headed to Medora which is the town that has grown up around the entrance to Teddy Roosevelt National Park. At the Painted Canyon visitors center the badlands were right in front of you and the temperature was 104. There was a stiff breeze blowing and you felt that you were standing in front of a full body hair dryer.

For the evening we had reservations for the Medora Musical at the Burning Hills Amphitheater. The theater is in a beautiful setting overlooking a part of the badlands. Medora now draws more tourists than any other place in North Dakota and the musical has got to be one of the reasons. The show primarily featured the Burning Hills Dancers and Singers. (6 men 6 women). They primarily performed up-beat country and western music and were backed up by a terrific country and western band called the Coaldiggers. There was a Russian woman twirling hula hoops, a ventriloquist who put on quite a show, a re-enactment of the Rough Riders at Kettle Hill in Cuba led by Teddy Roosevelt. The setting, the show - they were excellent.  Without an intermission they entertained a full two hours finishing up with a patriotic finale. What more could you ask for.

Missouri River at Bismarck,ND	Salem Sue - at Salem ND	Grasshopper on Enchanted Highway	Pheasants on Enchanted Highway
Prarie skyscrapers at New England, ND	Badlands at Painted Canyon Visitors Center	Burning Hills Amphitheater	Part of the Medora Musical

Day 24July 15,2002 Monday,  Medora, ND to Wolf Point, MT ( miles driven 256)

Seeing how the temperature was 104 or so yesterday we decided to get up early and get into the Teddy Roosevelt National Park before it became unbearable. We found one restaurant open at 7:00 for breakfast and were into the park at 7:30 am. The Medora entrance into the park is into the south unit which contains a 30+ mile loop road through the beautiful badlands. The views from no matter where you looked were awesome. There were many pullouts and overlooks. There were numerous Prairie Dog Villages with the little rodents sitting up and barking warnings whenever danger seemed near. We got the biggest surprise when a dark shape was visible in the sunlight on the other side of the road. When it cleared the glare of the sun, there in front of us not more than 15 feet away was the biggest bull buffalo I had ever had the pleasure to photograph from inside my car. Mom got quite a start when it stopped and looked directly at us. We saw many later on along with numerous range horses which are rounded up every three years and sold to thin out the herd. According to the ranger at the visitors center, no buffalo can be sold by NPS. They have to be given to the local American Indians who can dispose of them as they wish after paying the parks service for the round-up fee.  At one spot there was a huge herd of buffalo and a Asian Indian, with a Japanese/Chinese woman, was yelling something to the buffalo in a foreign tongue. I told him that these were American buffalo and that they would come to him if he would speak English. Later on we had one buffalo walking up the road in front of us and I got a picture of him in front through the windshield. We also took a mile hike on the Coal Vein trail which led you to a spot where lightning had started a coal vein on fire in 1951 and had remained on fire until 1977 when it went out on its own. According to the markers a considerable portion of the badlands landscape is the result of underground coal fires which then collapsed after the coal burned out.  We returned to the visitors center 3.5 hours after entering the park and took a tour of Teddy Roosevelt's Cabin which has been moved to this location. The original cabin site is about seven miles from the visitor center. The site of TR's Elk Horn Ranch is about 35 miles from Medora but the ranch has been dismantled by other settlers after TR abandoned it. The cabin tour guide was excellent.  After watching the video in the theater it was time to continue west.

From Medora we headed west on I-94 until we hit the town of Beach, ND at about the 3 mile marker from Montana. We stopped for lunch at a truck-stop and then headed north on Route 16 through some desolate range land with cattle plus some farms with crops we didn't recognize. At one spot in the road which had a speed limit of 55 we came upon a sign that said "Speed limit 20" when flashing. There was a school house with the name Squaw Gap School. It was in an awfully lonely spot with no residences visible in any direction. We then took another local road #68 to Sidney, Mt and then 200 to Culbertson, MT where we picked up the Montana section of US-2. US 2  winds it way across Montana's northern tier. It has many straight sections which lead your eye into the horizon. Every fifty miles or so is a town. We also passed through the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and decided to call it quits for the day at Wolf Point. The temperature read 100.

For dinner we went to Old Town Grill. I wouldn't be mentioning it but it had a neat way of placing your order. You sit down, read the menu and then pick up the red phone at the booth and call in the order to the kitchen. System worked real well and food was good besides.

I-94 from the Teddy R. NP Overlook	A very large Tatanka - TR National Park	From the Medora Overlook	Juniper on the Coal Vein trail
A herd of Tatankas	Tatanka through the windshield	Teddy Rosevelt's Cabin	Squaw Gap School in the middle of no-where.

Day 25 July 16,2002 Tuesday, Wolf Point, MT to Havre, MT ( miles driven 272) 

Click on the picture on the left and you get an idea of what we were looking at for most of the day. We started out at around 9:00 am and headed west on the seemingly un-ending US 2 through Montana. We drove to Fort Peck Dam and Lake to view the worlds longest earthenware dam which backs up  the Missouri to form a lake with a shoreline longer than the California coast. There is a plaque there which commemorates the 8 workers that died when a section of the dam under construction slid. Six of them were never recovered. We tried to take a tour of the museum and take a tour of the powerhouse but found out we had a good 50 minute wait for the tour. We continued down the road through the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and took a small break for lunch in Malta and to see the museum which was recommended to us by a local while waiting during a construction delay. The museum contains dinosaurs excavated locally. There is also a large display dealing with the Hole in the Wall Gang (Butch and Sundance), Kid Curry and other gunslingers that operated in the local area. It is an excellent museum. Sometime during the day along the road we saw one elk and also a herd of antelopes. At Sleeping Buffalo we saw the place where the worlds largest hamburger (6000 lbs) was cooked to set a Guiness book of records mark. We also listened to a book on tape during the ride. The book really helped us get through the day. Tomorrow we will be in St. Mary, Montana right outside Glacier National Park. Havre is a town of 10,000. It does show visible signs of aging. But then so do I.

Fort Peck Lake - The level is way down	The King Burger	Through the windshield

Day 26 July 17,2002 Wednesday, Havre, MT  to St. Mary, MT, Glacier NP  ( miles driven 243

Last night the dryer in the motel laundromat was not working very well so we had spread all the moist clothes all over the room. The first order of business was to clear up the laundry and then think about breakfast. A late start was in order and welcome. We left Haver at 10:30 AM and headed for St. Mary's. At Shelby we took a break and walked through the town. This town is much smaller than Havre, only 3000 residents. What a difference. The town looks clean and active. At the visitors center we asked when we would be seeing the Rocky Mountains and were informed we would be seeing them from Shelby except for the smoke from the forest fire at St. Mary. The sky in front of us was what I thought was haze from the heat but it turned out to be smoke. We later learned that the fire had been started on July 11 by a lightning strike and had by now consumed upwards of 5000 acres.

After checking into the motel we took a ride to the Many Glacier access to the Glacier NP. My Golden Eagle Pass came in handy once again and we drove in for free.  On the way to this entry we could see the smoke of the fire concentrated in one area and a helicopter carrying a large water bucket from the lake to the ridge. There was a camp near the highway that was organized for the fire fighting effort. The Many Glacier area was just as spectacular as we remembered it form 1997. We walked into the lodge, overlooked the lake and then returned to St. Mary's for dinner prior to going to the Blackfoot Indian Drum and Dance presentation at the St. Mary's visitors center. When we pulled into the motel we could see flames shooting high into the air from the ridge two miles away.

The dancing and drumming were excellent. The leader of the group spent some time explaining the history of the Blackfoot  Confederation and described the dances as well as the native dress ornamentation. The dance dress worn by one of the women was said to be in excess of 80 lbs and from the looks of it, it was. Many of the dancers were high school kids and many of them had won national championships in their craft. We remembered going to the Plains Indian gathering in Browning, MT in 1997 where there were hundreds of dancers in fancy dress and many drum/singing groups. It was a spectacular day then and it was a spectacular evening tonight.

There is no phone in the motel tonight. It is very rustic but the food in the restaurant next door run by the same family is excellent. I will post tomorrow to the net.

Shelby, MT	Many Glacier	Swiftcurrent Falls	Many Glacier area
Many Glacier area see the hazy smoke from the fires in the area	Fox Creek fire -two miles away	Learning about the Blackfeet	Blackfoot Dancers

Day 27 July 18,2002 Thursday, Glacier National Park  ( miles driven 84) 

Today was a day in one of the most scenic of our National Parks. We basically drove the Going to the Sun Road round trip. It is an approximately 100 mile round trip over the top of the Rocky Mountains. The highest point for cars is about 6200 feet at Logan Pass. There is still lotsa snow at the higher elevations and I did throw snow at Mom at the Logan Pass ranger station. At breakfast two women at the next table were talking about NJ and how everybody there calls you hon. So naturally when leaving I had to walk over and say - Have a good day, Hon. They got a laugh. This backfired on me later when I spotted one of the women walking around at a scenic pullout and saw what I thought was the other one behind the wheel of a pick-up. I was walking that way anyhow so I said "We meet again, Hon" It turned out to be a different woman and a man sitting in the passenger side. God only knows what he was thinking. I put my foot in my mouth often and have learned to differentiate between the left and the right. 

One of the prettiest easy walks in the park is the Trail of the Tall Cedars. It is a flat mostly boardwalk stroll through some spectacular cedar and hemlock trees. We walked this .8 mile loop the last time we were here and did it again. It was just as nice. At the midpoint of the loop is the junction with the Avelanche Trail to some pretty lakes. I walked up this trail a very short distance to get some more pictures of the Avelanche falls. The water was rushing with a roar. I stepped out on a rock to take a picture and then got back on the trail. There happened to be a ranger standing close by and he did not yell at me for standing on the rock. All he said was that there had been a fatality of that same rock two weeks earlier. He said that he couldn't say anything because I was just one of many people that were hanging 10 of the side of the gorge. He was a nice fellow.

Lunch was at the Trails End Restaurant at the Lake McDonald lodge area on the other end of Going to the sun. While sitting at the table two people walked up and said - So we meet in Glacier. While in Teddy R. NP we struck up a conversation with a couple on a trail and they said that they were heading to Glacier a day or two later. When leaving I said - See you in Glacier and here they were. What' s the chances.

On the way back to St. Mary I stopped at a pullout and had a piece of paper blow out of the car and continue down the road. I finally caught up with it after it blew across the road about 200 feet away and got caught in the grass. I picked it up, put it in my pocket and started walking back to the scenic view. There was a rangerette waiting by her patrol car and she said "Sir, I see that you bent over and put what looked like a white rock in your pocket. May I see it please?" I said I picked up a paper that blew out of my car and didn't want to litter the park. She insisted on seeing it and I pulled out the crumpled paper and showed her. She said that she had stopped three people from picking up rocks and thanked me for picking up my paper. I then told her that I would wait until she leaves and then I will walk across the road to pick up a white rock. She said she couldn't stop me and left. This area was so rock strewn that if the whole population picked one up there would still be twice as many left. 

St. Mary's Lake	Goat Island on St. Mary's Lake	Sunrift Gorge	Along the Going to the Sun Road
Flowers at Logan Pass	Logan Pass Area	Logan Pass	Avelanche Falls
Us at Avelanche Falls	Trail of the Tall Cedars	Chandelier at Lake MacDonald Lodge

Day 28 July 19,2002 Friday, Glacier National Park - Calgary, Alberta, CA ( miles driven 234) 

Day 25 needs a postscript. On Tuesday July 16 we stopped at the museum in Malta, Mt. The museum had an item which they could not identify and were asking for help in doing so. I offered to take a picture of it and send it on to my friends back at Millbrook village in NJ. Although they had an anti-photo policy at the museum they brought the item outside and allowed me to photo it. That evening from the motel I sent it to Jim Kyle and asked his aid in identifying it. It was identified by Wednesday. Jim is an expert in dealing with e-bay and he identified the item marked as Florence Co., Florence Mass as the oil container for an portable oil stove. It dated back to around 1900. Jim also called the museum in Malta and identified the item to them as well as pointing out the place where they could see one for sale on e-bay. Fine work Jim.

Now on to Friday. Today we moved out of Glacier National Park and started moving north to Canada and the Canadian Rockies. We drove up the east side of Glacier to head to the Canadian side of Glacier which is called Waterton Lakes Peace Park. We drove past Chief mountain which is sacred to the Blackfoot Indians. The trails up to this mountain indicate that no non-tribal member can camp there and I believe no non tribal members are allowed to climb the mountain. We cleared Canadian customs in a few minutes and were on our way. We drove over to the Prince of Wales Hotel which is in a spectacular setting. The coffee was good here and so was the gift shop for mom. We happened to run into the same people that we met in Teddy R NP on Monday and in Glacier yesterday. What's the chances again. After visiting a buffalo corral we headed up Route 6 north to Pinchers Creek for lunch at an A&W and then over to Fort McLeod to pick up Route 2 to Calgary. At Pinchers Creek there is a massive field of windmill electric generators. One of the locals said that this area is one of the windiest in the world. Only a few of the units were spinning today. Either they didn't need the power or the wind was down. I think it was the latter.

We arrived at Calgary at around 3:00 and had a rough time locating the motel. The street/road layout in the Calgary outskirts is not a straight grid. After finding a information center we were set straight and had no further problems. After a short rest in the motel we took the local mass transportation line downtown to go up the Calgary Tower - a 565 foot high tower with an observation deck. $16.00 CAD for two to go up. One thing I have learned so far in Canada is that there is a favorable $ exchange rate for Americans. However there is an unfavorable exchange rate for Americans when it comes to being considered seniors. In Canada that means 65. In US it is almost always 62 and sometimes as early as 60. After dinner at a fancy restaurant with good food and un-fancy prices (the restaurant has a Chihuly glass chandelier hanging in it) we took the train back to the motel. We tried to take a walk downtown but it was getting close to 7:00 pm and the street people were very evident at this time on the mostly deserted streets. No sense in wandering into something you might not be able to wander out of. 

Guess What?	View from lobby of Prince of Wales Hotel	Waterton Lake -Mom took this shot from a small plane	Prince of Wales Hotel
Waterton Village	Sad tale of Charcoal	Calgary buildings from tower	Calgary Tower
Calgary Municipal Building from Tower

   

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