July 19, day 34: Dickinson, North Dakota to Red Lodge ,Montana

We started our first full day  back in the mountain time zone by sleeping in a little bit, having a nice breakfast and then packing up the car.

First stop of the day was the Badlands Dinosaur Museum. This was a small, but very well done museum focusing on dinosaur fossils and skeletons, primarily found in North Dakota. This area, as well as a number of other states in the middle of the US, was, at one point, prime places for dinosaurs. The crown jewel of this collection is a triceratops skull that is 66 million years old. They also have a reconstructed dinosaur that is covered in feathers which is a fairly new idea, but appears to be more accurate than previously thought. It does look indeed that the birds are descended from dinosaurs. They also had a marvelous collection of gems and other precious rocks from around the world. The museum also included some very fine artifacts from history in this part of North Dakota which we were only briefly able to enjoy. It was well worth hanging around Dickinson for a little extra time.

Then, not too far down Highway 94 we made a stop at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This area was where our former president, Teddy Roosevelt, fell in love with nature and became quite a champion in creating protected national monuments and other wild areas using the Antiquities Act. We did not have the time today to do a lot of exploring around the park which we have been to in the past. We did take time though to gaze into the large canyon at the core of the park. Beautiful and very different from the flat flat land we are leaving behind us. We also are aware of a bison herd in the park which we didn’t see today. But we did see some warning posters hoping to keep tourists from making stupid and potentially tragic mistakes of getting too close to the bison.

The drive across eastern Montana was filled with very flat land and very hot air, over 110 degrees. A fun distraction was when we passed a set of trucks hauling carnival rides. We could imagine kids having a great time when these rides were set up. The land became more varied as we drove along the Yellowstone River valley but the heat did not abate until we reached our destination. We felt encouraged when we could finally see mountains on the horizon after we had turned south from Billings, MT.

The goal today was to reach Red Lodge Montana in preparation for our dramatic pass through the mountains tomorrow. We arrived in the late afternoon and were very glad to have good air conditioning in our hotel room.  We rested, played with some pictures, ate a light dinner, and got some groceries that we would eat during the next few days as we camped.