Heading home
Sitting in the lounge in Toronto, awaiting our flight home is a great opportunity to fill in the gap that was left after the busiest day in Medora. We flew in from Edmonton a couple of hours ago and our flight to LHR doesn’t leave until 10pm, so it’s good to have something purposeful to do.
I posted the shortest of placeholders because we’d had a splendid day but didn’t arrive back till very late. When we saw the sign for the Painted Canyon on the I-94 we decided to make a stop. We’d planned to spend the day in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but hadn’t realised there was something extra on the way!
When we walked to the viewing point on the edge of the canyon and saw what was here, we couldn’t imagine how we’d not heard of this before. Of course, it’s all on a much smaller scale than, say, the Grand Canyon, but in its own way, it was equally spectacular.
Here, there were trails to walk and families were heading off on footpaths into the canyon.
For the first of many times today, we marvelled at the number of greens we could see in the landscape, from the greeny-yellows of the flowering plants at our feet to the blue-green of the sage brush and the dark green conifers on the hillside, not to mention all the greens in between.
Before we did anything else, though, we needed to head into the town of Medora and pick up our tickets for the show.
Medora is a touristy place and unsurprisingly, the ticket office was also a gift shop. Given Theodore Roosevelt’s claim to fame, there are no prizes for guessing what the favourite souvenir here is.
Mission accomplished, into the National Park we went, armed with Mary’s Golden Pass, acquired so many road trips ago! (My apologies for the reflections in the photo, taken in a hurry as we passed the sign!)
The circular drive from the park entrance took us up into the hills, from where there were some fine views. We’d been advised that part of the circular route was currently under repair, so we’d have to turn around and come back the same way, but that didn’t matter. We were happy to see everything from both directions.
Every so often there was a layby, where one could stop and enjoy the view. The most popular of these were those by the prairie dog towns where these cute creatures were pretty active.
Sometimes, though, we stopped to admire the view and a bison strolled in to photobomb the picture!
Mostly though, we just stopped to admire the view and enjoy the fresh air.
The layers in the rock were remarkable, with or without a bison by them
and in some places we were reminded of the Badlands in South Dakota. Well, that makes sense, since these are known as the Badlands of North Dakota!
Then, just as we’d become complacent and had forgotten about the roadworks… We turned around and returned the way we’d come.
We stopped for a while to watch the prairie dogs again and observed a herd of bison graze on the hillside in the distance.
We were booked for the “Pitchfork Fondue” before the show that evening, so with a couple of hours to spare, we headed for the other thing on our list in Medora, the Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame.
Well, having travelled through the south west USA and visited some pretty magnificent cowboy-related places, let me simply say that North Dakota isn’t the best part of the country to see such things. Our minds immediately went back to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth TX which really highlighted what a poor show Medora offered in comparison.
Moving right along…
Over on a hillside on the opposite side of Medora from the National Park, a huge theatre has been constructed for the Medora Musical. This appeared to be a must-see and whilst enjoying dinner in Bismarck and chatting to our server Carter and saying we were heading for Medora, he said that he was there himself this weekend to see the musical.
Sure enough, as we enjoyed the pre-show dinner, who should come over and tap me on the shoulder but Carter himself. So funny to be so far from home and yet encounter someone who recognised us!
It’s not like there weren’t a few hundred people there that night, either!
The guys grilling the steaks (ten on a pitchfork) said they’d cooked five hundred so far that night! Very tasty they were too.
They were not quite finished cooking, either.
After dinner, we made our way to the auditorium, joining the line for the escalator down the hillside.
Once in our seats, we looked around and spotted an elk on the brow of the hill over there.
I zoomed in on my little camera to check it wasn’t part of the scenery!
That was confirmed by the arrival of a couple of cowboys who shooed it away.
Once the show began we understood why - there were some fireworks and other special effects set on that hill which would have troubled any wild creature for sure.
It was a fun show and came to a spectacular end with the arrival of the three cowboys on the hillside, just as darkness fell. My guess is that they did another swoop for any more wildlife before the finale fireworks were lit.
We had 35km to drive back to Dickinson, so didn’t hang about once the show finished, but headed straight for the escalator and our car, joining the long line of traffic heading eastwards on the I-94 again. Writing about it all now and revisiting my photos reminds me of what a fab day that was!
What a great road trip, in fact!
