Thursday May 18, 2023 - Malta MT to Theodore Roosevelt National Park

This Malta city park worked out great. This morning there was us, another van and a pickup with a camper parked here. Flush toilets and running water. Pretty good for $5. Deb said a couple of pickups drove through last night (I was asleep) but overall pretty quiet. 

Cold cereal for breakfast then north to touch the Canadian border. RT 191 took us the last 56 miles north through open rolling green hills. A few wheat fields (last year’s stubble) and not much else. The border crossing is only manned from 9am to 5pm Monday thru Friday and we got there at 8:15 so we took a celebratory picture and turned around.

Our goal today is Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This means driving half way across Montana and then almost into Williston, ND, then RT 85 south to the park.

As we headed east we saw what appears to be wheat fields being prepared for seeding. It feels late but they are pretty far north. It was still smoky this morning but the smoke cleared as we went east and by the time we got to Williston, it was just normal grey sky, not so much smoke.

As soon as we crossed into North Dakota all of the oil and gas activity began. Lots of drill rigs, oil pumps and tanks, and gas lines. More activity since the last time I came through a couple of years ago on the motorcycle.

RT 2 is the northernmost road for the most part across the top of the U.S. It was called the Roosevelt Highway after Teddy Roosevelt died, and it was a patchwork of roads from Portland ME to Portland OR. In the late 1920’s they paved it and called it RT 2.

RT 85 cuts south just before Williston and it’s called the Roosevelt Expressway. It’s very new and 4 lanes for a good long while. There were lots of drainage projects almost as if they were going to continue it south beyond the park. Maybe Williston has thoughts on becoming a big city somehow and wants to be connected to the rest of the country.

We pulled into the park (north unit) and the visitor center was closed until May 30. It is normally $30 but we have the geezer pass so no charge. We found the Juniper campground with 50 sites of which maybe 10 were taken so we had our pick. We saw a buffalo herd driving in as well as what looked like wild longhorn cattle. The site was $14 but only $7 with the senior pass.

A walk was in order so we headed back toward the entrance but the buffalo intercepted us on the road and we had to cut through a back way to avoid them. We found the Buckthorn trail and did a short hike. We returned to the campground and tried hiking the nature trail but had to turn back as the cattle had commandeered the trail. We met two young French guys (Paris) who were travelling for a year in their van (they shipped it here) all over the US and Canada.

We walked back to our campsite and the buffalo decided to take a stroll through the campground. They left and then came back later for a second look around for nice green grass. Nothing more than the evil eye from them, but everyone kept their distance.

Odo = 7983