Badlands North Dakota

August 4 thru August 8

On Saturday we made it to Badlands National Park in South Dakota. We discovered that this was bike week at Sturgis North Dakota and even this far away bikers were out numbering cars at least 10 to 1. It is predicted that there will be 450,000 bikes in attendance. We have seen some “interesting” characters and we are still 100 miles away.
When we arrived and realized there were lots of people in the area, we made sure we could get a campsite around 4:00, then took a loop drive through the park. There were lots of views of the eroded hills and gullies that make this park famous. The drive passed through about a mile or more of prairie dog town. It was fun watching the little “dogs” pop in and out of their holes, with mothers squeaking madly at their kids to “get inside here”. I thought Jacob and Lola would like the pictures of them popping in and out.

The next morning we had on of those “small world” experiences. At the campground pancake breakfast, one of the Sturgis riders, who was from Massachusetts, asked where we were from. When we said Dixmont the wanted to know if we knew where Hog Hill was. Seems he has hunted there for years, and is soon moving to China where his Dad lives now.

Sunday night we stayed at Angostura State Park, which is on a reservoir. North Dakota is in the midst of an 8 year drought. The park host told us the water is down 27 feet from it’s normal level. We walked to the marina in the morning and saw the docks sitting on the bare ground with trees growing up all around them. I don’t think the thunderstorm that came through last night was much help.