Travel Tuesday: The Road Trip Continues Into North Dakota

Believe it or not, I'm still not done recapping our big Summer 2012 road trip! It won't be long now, but...if you'd like to catch up on past posts about the trip, here are the links:

• Road Trip Success
• Let the Road Trip Fun Begin
• South Dakota Supreme: Part 1
• South Dakota Supreme: Part 2
• The Road Trip Continues Into Alien Territory
• Travel Tuesday: The Road Trip Continues Into Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
• Travel Tuesday: Washington Reunion
• Travel Tuesday: Glacier National Park

After leaving Glacier National Park, we were exhausted from our day of breathtaking site-seeing. But we still had to get in at least a couple hours of driving because the clock was ticking. My mom was scheduled to be back to work on a certain day, so we couldn't linger. I purposely decided to take a different route heading east than we had taken while driving west so that we could see some different scenery. On our way back to Michigan, we started out on U.S. 2, which took us through northern Montana, and then transferred to I-94 before entering North Dakota. U.S. 2 was definitely a more rural route, taking us along a four lane highway very close to Canada. It was also flatter going, so not nearly as intense as driving through the mountains with a speed  limit of 70! U.S. 2 does go straight to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and I'd love to go that way next time!

Somewhere along U.S. 2 in Montana

There were lots of places I wanted to stop, and again it was difficult trying to have tunnel vision and driving past interesting museums and sites. The area is a hot bed of dinosaur fossils, and many little museums along U.S. 2 display remains. We didn't stop at any, and after spending the night in a little Montana town, pressed forward with North Dakota on our minds. Once in awhile we pulled over to read road side markers, like the one to the left, to learn a little about the local history. Under this particular sign, someone had so thoughtfully left a memorial in the form of a Crown Royal bottle. 

Baker Massacre memorial

Around here, we typically see things like teddy bears and homemade signs at road side memorials. Artificial flowers adorned with ribbons too...but I don't think I've ever seen a Crown Royal bottle.

We also stopped to snap a few pictures of this dilapidated abandoned bridge. It looked pretty dangerous to me, and nothing was blocking it off. But hey, we were in the wild west. I'm not sure if this was in Montana or North Dakota. Actually, the drop wasn't too far down, but still! I wouldn't want to fall in that murky water. Or trip on those rusty iron beams.

Gas station somewhere in North Dakota

Check out this gas station art somewhere in North Dakota. Appropriate, don't you think? Also, there is a baby or small child in the dinosaur's mouth. Sort of disturbing, but still interesting. I love finding sculptures in random public places.

One place I really wanted to visit in North Dakota was the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. However, it just wasn't meant to be this time. But I had read that if we pulled off at exit 32 (off of I-94, eastbound), the exit for the Painted Canyon Visitor Center, that we could get a decent view of the park and maybe even see some wandering bison.


So we had to pass up this ------------------------>

But...we did see this ---
<------------------>
right outside of our car! And at least 12 more like it, including a few babies. It was getting kind of late by the time we got there, so we didn't get out, but we did roll through and take some pics. Lots of other travelers were poking their heads out of their car windows and snapping photos too.







Where else can you see random, free-roaming bison just hanging out at a rest stop? I love the west! However, I just read some sad news. The Painted Canyon Visitor Center is supposed to re-open for the season on April 1st, but it is closed indefinitely due to budget cuts. This makes me sad, and really happy that we stopped! Hopefully the visitor center will be re-opened again soon.

Now, let's talk about sunflowers. I had no idea that North Dakota is home to field after field full of big, beautiful sunflowers. They are gorgeous. All last summer I wanted to find a field of sunflowers so I could take pictures of my kids in it. And here I was, zooming down I-94 going 75 miles an hour and passing who knows how many fields of sunflowers. There was no place to stop and get close enough. I was so bummed! I got a few shots at a rest stop, but we couldn't get close enough to the field for my liking. Just know, these pictures do not do the flowers justice, at all!

North Dakota sunflowers

Since this was our first time in North Dakota, I wanted to make sure we did at least one touristy thing. Jamestown just happened to be on our route. Jamestown is known as "Buffalo City", probably because it is the home of the world's largest buffalo at Frontier Village. Basically, Frontier Village is a compilation of several historical buildings, such as an old post office and church, that have been donated by local residents. And of course there's the buffalo...which is, by the way, a statue. In case you were hoping to see the world's largest live buffalo. It was fun and kitschy and super duper hot.

Fun at Frontier Village in Jamestown, North Dakota

We didn't have much time in North Dakota, but we had enough time to see and appreciate some of this beautiful state. Bison and sunflowers and Frontier Village: a few more reasons to love a road trip. We wouldn't have seen any of this stuff from an airplane. I'm getting nostalgic for our time on the road!

Next stop: Mall of America.

Don't want to miss what happens next? Be sure to sign up for MichiGal email updates! Click HERE!

The Road Trip Continues into Alien Territory - Wyoming

It's been awhile since I've posted about our big road trip, but I still have a whole lot more to say about it. Life has gotten in the way, but I better get crackin' before I forget everything!

To re-cap, so far I've published the following posts about our adventures on the road:

Road Trip Success! In this post you will find our basic itinerary.

Let the Road Trip Fun Begin! This post covers the first couple days of our trip, including the fun we had in Iowa.

South Dakota Supreme: Part 1 We did so much awesome stuff in South Dakota, I had to break it up into two posts. This one covers our very busy first day in South Dakota.

South Dakota Supreme: Part 2  And this post is all about our second exciting day in one of my new favorite states. Never been to South Dakota? Read these two posts, and hopefully they will help convince you that this is a fantastic vacation destination!

I can't over state how much I enjoyed our time in South Dakota. Before our trip, I never really thought of it as a place to go on vacation. I thought of it more as a place to drive through (and see Mount Rushmore) on your way to someplace else. But now that I know first hand how cool it is, I would truly like to dedicate at least a week to seeing everything we couldn't fit in.

After breakfast, we checked out of our hotel in Rapid City and hit the road. On our way to Montana, our route took us through the northeast corner of Wyoming. None of us had ever been to Wyoming, I don't think*, so I wanted to make sure we had at least one memorable stop. What we saw of Wyoming was stunningly beautiful. Lucky for us, we would be heading past Devils Tower National Monument. The idea of seeing as many National Parks and National Monuments as possible is appealing to me, and my enthusiasm was contagious, at least for my kids.

Not "close enough" to Devils Tower

My mom, on the other hand, was less enthused when we began to realize that the monument was a little further out of our way than we had thought. But I think my kids were totally convinced that anyplace with the name Devils Tower was way too cool to pass up, especially when we were so close. We got off I-90 near Sundance, Wyoming, and headed in a northerly direction. We absolutely had to be in Gold Creek, Montana** the following day by noon. So when we saw Devils Tower from a distance, and pulled off at a scenic overlook to take some pictures. I tried valiantly to convince the kids that this was close enough. But they pouted and I relented. I had, after all, promised them we'd go there. And who knows when we'll be "in the neighborhood" of Devils Tower National Monument again?

Much better! Devils Tower National Monument

So we drove and drove and drove until we came upon a gift shop just outside the entrance to the national monument. At this point, I implored the kids to save their mother the $10 entrance fee, not to mention the time of waiting in the long line of vehicles. Since we had a fantastic view from the parking lot, they were happy. The prospect of doing a little shopping didn't hurt either. While shopping, we noticed that there were quite a few alien themed items for sale in the shop. We thought it was funny and joked that the monument did look like something from outer space. We picked out an alien magnet for Chris and didn't think too much more about it. Not until we got home did Chris enlighten me that Close Encounters of the Third Kind  had actually been filmed at Devils Tower. Hmmm. That explained a lot.

Okay, so we drove all the way to Devils Tower and we didn't even go through the entrance gate. But I was alright with that, and so were the kids. Sometimes it is worth the time to linger, other times a few quick pictures suffice just fine. And the gift shop was pretty cool, so it was all good. I don't think there is much to do once you get through the gates, except maybe drive around and get a little closer to the monument. If you've been there and I'm wrong, please let me know in the comments! It did seem to be a popular place for motorcycle enthusiasts. A fellow gift shop customer (who was a biker) let me know how ticked off he was that he use to be able to ride for free, and now they're charging 10 bucks.

Once we had our fill of Devils Tower, we were on our way to Montana, another gorgeous state. All the mountain driving was incredibly scenic and awesome. The twists and turns and dips and climbs felt a bit like being on a roller coaster, and took quite a bit more intense concentration than the flat Michigan driving I'm accustomed to. More than once, we were coasting downhill for at least five minutes at a time. Seeing so far in the distance was a different experience too. We could see storms brewing miles away, and every time we came to a city we got a big picture view from above. That said, I never felt we were in a dangerous driving situation. Oftentimes throughout the trip, I admit, I may have been driving a bit *cough, cough* slower than the posted speed limit, but we made out okay.

You don't have to tell us twice! Wyoming rest stop.

Since my mom had to be at her destination by noon the following day, we wanted to get in as many miles as possible. So we didn't stop for anymore sight seeing that day (which was day 5 of the trip). We did stop to eat at a rest area in Wyoming, where we saw signs warning of rattlesnakes. By the time we got to Butte, Montana that night, I knew I was pretty much incapable of driving any further. Unfortunately for us, there was a very popular Evel Knieval event in town, which made the prospect of finding a room for the night a bit challenging. Eventually we found our way to the locally owned Copper King Hotel, which ended up being a really nice place. It had been a long, exhausting day (we covered about 600 miles) and we welcomed a comfortable night's sleep and a good breakfast. The rates were very reasonable, and the staff was friendly. When the kids saw the pool, they were disappointed that we couldn't hang around and go for a swim. But our schedule called, and we had to be on our merry way.

Butte was only about an hour away from Gold Creek, so we were able to get my mom to her destination in plenty of time. We were glad that we didn't have to rush. After saying our good-byes, we began the next segment of our trip, and drove straight to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The kids were anxious to get straight to my aunt and uncle's house, where we would be staying for the next few days, so our only stops were a rest area and a gas station. After days of living at a frenetic pace, we could finally slow down a little.

Our journey will continue in my next road trip post...

*When I was very young, about two years old, my mom and I moved out west with her aunt and uncle and drove with them from Michigan to California. We may have been in Wyoming then. Neither of us can remember ;-)

**This is where we were dropping my mom off for the week.

Montana on Dwellable