Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND
Aug. 6, 2013
After Cody we headed for the Big Horn Canyon National Recreation Area.
This is on the border between Wyoming and Montana.
The Big Horn River has cut a deep (1000 ft) canyon, which is now
a very long and narrow reservior created by a dam in Montana. While the
area may be of interest to boaters, we found it to be a disappointment.
It was hot (low to mid 90s) with no shade. It would have been better to
come here in the spring when it is cooler. We stayed one night and then
moved on to the Big Horn Mountains, where we found a nice campground on
a high mountain lake and did some kayaking, but mostly just relaxed
over the weekend.
Our next stop was Theodore National Park in western North Dakota. We
found it surprisingly green compared to our last trip here several
years ago. The park is named after our former President, who loved this
area and had a ranch near here. Even though he was born in Manhattan,
Roosevelt was quite an outdoorsman and conservationist.
The park has several prairie dog towns. This prairie dog is serving as a sentinel to watch for predators and other hazards.
The park also has wild horses, which we managed to see.
For those rock hounds interested in geology the topology of the area makes it very easy to see different rock layers.
This rather unusual rock is called scoria. It turns out that there are
veins of low grade coal in the area and these veins can be ignited by
lightning strikes or brush fires. One coal vein smoldered for 26 years.
When an underground coal vein burns long enough it heats the clay soil
above it to a high enough temperature that scoria is formed.
Next stop: Minnesota