Author: Steve

There are blank states on our map. One of them, Minnesota is only one state away from where we are now in North Dakota.

Know what else? Minnesota has Bobolinks. Lots of them. For all the birds we’ve seen, we’ve never seen Bobolinks.

Once we get to Minnesota, we understand if we go north, we can hear Loons. If we go east we can see Pam and Dan. Anybody know anything else about Minnesota? Any recommendations about really cool places to stay? RV Parks, State Parks, Top Birding Sites?

Wild horses walk through the campground here at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Yesterday I referred to it as a State Park, but that’s not right. It’s a National Park. I wasn’t accurate about living off the batteries and tanks, either. We only used a little of the water we carried in, but we recharged the batteries a couple times with the generator.

There are bison here too.

There is a campground in the park but it’s primitive. The KOA campground is right at the entrance to the National Monument, has full hookups, and it plays the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind every night on its outdoor screen. Trees, grass, views, birds… This might be the nicest KOA we’ve ever been to.

Devil’s Tower isn’t a volcanic cone. Molten magma was forced up into a fissure in the earth above it, cooled, and cracked underground. Over the next 50 million years, the dirt and rock around the column weathered away, and voila! A Tower!

There is nice paved mile-long trail around the base. It’s covered with people in the summertime. There is another loop trail around the tower that is slightly rugged and is three times as long. That one is empty of people, but provided great views of the tower,

lots of birds, mule deer, and a five foot bull snake.

Thanks again to Bill and Marge for their hospitality. We got to see Marge’s brother and mother while we were there too. That was fun.

We took a walk around the farm and Annie found the farm pond. She was light brown all over when she went in. She came out two-toned; almost black underneath. That was one happy farm dog bouncing back to the house.

Wheatland bird list:
Osprey
Swainson’s Hawk
Killdeer
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Western Kingbird
American Crow
Barn Swallow
American Robin
European Starling
Lark Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

We’d rather be in the eighties than the nineties, so we headed north. We can watch the national weather map and let it push us north or south for the rest of the summer.

http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/tendayforecastusnational/usweatherday2_large.html?clip=undefined&region=undefined&collection=localwxforecast&presname=undefined

We’ll go where the weather wants us.

Wheatland to Glendo on Interstate 25. Through Shawnee and Lost Springs on Highway 20 to Lusk. North on Highway 85 to Newcastle for lunch in the Pamida parking lot. North on Highway 16 though Upton and across Interstate 90 at Moorcroft. The roads get smaller past Pine Haven and Keyhole State Park. A couple more turns and we’re at Devil’s Tower.

At the Devil’s Tower KOA.

Nothing to report. Got some work done. It will take a while to get caught up, but we made some progress today. Judy got some visiting done with Marge. It’s still hot, but only 90 or so.

We took down the bird feeders when it was time to leave the Family Reunion and stacked them on the picnic table before putting them away. The Pine Siskins didn’t give up on the thistle sock until the final moment.