Day 6: Williston to Bismarck

Today we took a detour from the Lewis and Clark trail and Missouri River and headed south on Highway 85 for the North Dakota Badlands. I can see why they call Montana "Big Sky Country." The sky is so blue here and there is so much of it with nothing to block your view - like trees. As Jim says, "You can see the sky by looking straight ahead here. You don't have to look up."

We stopped at an overlook to view the Badlands, rugged, but beautiful country. The French fur trappers named the Badlands because it was difficult to travel through. The settlers called it "hell after the fire went out." And with the winter temperatures here (-40 to -50), I think it might be hell frozen over in the winter.

We turned off for the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I wanted to see buffalo and there was a picture of a herd of these beasts on the cover of a brochure. The park ranger told us that the road was bad and it was closed 6 miles in due to oonstruction. We decided to try it anyway and within about a quarter mile we saw a buffalo about 15 feet from the road.

I immediately hopped out and started clicking. The beast was grazing and seemed to ignore us -- he certainly wasn't afraid of us. So Jim started making noise so the animal would lift it's head for pictures. Then he noticed us and started coming our way... Jim said, "I think you had better get in the car." So I did and we took off just as the animal reached the road and lumbered across it.

We enjoyed the beautiful scenery for the next 2 miles until we bottomed out with a loud crunch on the road. Fortunately there seemed to be no damage, but we decided not to continue -- it was definitely an SUV road.

Soon we found the friendly Interstate Highway again and headed east for Bismarck to visit Jim's uncle. After driving for 6 days, Jim says he could use some of that monkey butt powder. There seem to be more people in North Dakota, but we still have not broken the livestock barrier. According to a brochure we picked up at the rest stop, there are approximately three head of cattle per resident of North Dakota.

At Bismarck we rejoined the Lewis and Clark trail and the Missouri River. Jim's uncle lives across town, but it only took five minutes to get there. This seems like a very nice, livable town. We had a nice visit and dinner with Jim's uncle. We will be heading south to Iowa tomorrow.