Weesa's Next Great National Parks Adventure - NoDak & SoDak

North or South - which one am I more likely to see the mushroom looking hoodoos?

 

The mushroom-y rocks are in Roosevelt - I think I found the trail. Caprock Coulee in the North. Guess I'm hiking that!

 

Pretty sure "mushroom'y like rocks" isn't a technical term

And I know all about the clay. Ick

 

I'm sure some of you will be sad to know that I decided to pass on Wall Drug. I was in Wall three times but was on my way to more important things each time and couldn't afford the stop.
Roosevelt Park was cool, thanks @mr.trd for suggesting the north unit. I never found the cap rocks I wanted to see but the views up there were much more impressive. I hiked the 4.5 mile caprock coulee loop from river bend overlook and back. Not used to trails that I need a machete to get through
Also hiked to the petrified forest which was amazing. Spooked up a rattlesnake which was not so amazing. I think I'm more scared of snakes than I am grizzly bears...
Camp at cottonwood in the south unit was great, all except the wood ticks. Ick. I was surprised to find so much elbow room in a NP camp. I think I had a good 30 yards between me and the neighboring camps.
The drive down to SD was freaking long! And rainy. And short on bathrooms. Drove thru Sturgis just to say I've seen the place. Got lost in Rapid City and found my way to Badlands about 2 hours behind schedule, just long enough to grab a shower and shovel some food down my throat before heading to bed. Windy all night, thought my RTT was gonna collapse. Wandered around in the heat for a while and caught an awesome sunset in the Badlands.

 

No downpour overnight. I survived probably one of the worst storms I've seen in my RTT Saturday night at Makoshika then drove thru two horrible storms on Monday and Tuesday. Nights have been pretty calm since other than wind
still on the road, more adventures to be had!

 

So I was planning on hiking to Black Elk Peak today but then I found out that today was 1 of 3 days this year that you can hike up to the face of Crazy Horse Memorial. And I drug @memario1214 with me. It was busy (and windy) but it was worth it. So much more impressive seeing it up close. Only wish Rushmore was the same!

 

Good god I'm beautiful

 

I don't see them carving your ugly mug out of a mountain any time soon

 

If you haven't noticed it takes time to carve a beautiful face into a mountain

 

Park #1 - Makoshika State Park
After departing balmy Belgrade, MT at a lovely 65* I arrived at my first destination - Makoshika State Park - in Eastern MT. And I stepped out of my comfy Runner into 99* heat. I started sweating immediately and don't think I stopped for 6 days. I knew I'm not cut out for heat and this was a glaring reminder of that. I tried to make the most of it, I've wanted to visit Makoshika for a while now but the 6 hour drive there keeps it from being the average weekend get-a-way. I hung out at camp under the shade of one scrawny tree, ate an early dinner and set off for the trails once it started to cool down a bit. The scenery was fantastic, like walking into another world. Makoshika and the surrounding area is part of the MT Dinosaur Trail, famous for its many fossil discoveries. Layer after layer, millions of years of sediment exposed on the hills in and around the park. Sadly, no dino discoveries were made in my explorations. The "trails" left something to be desired but then there's not much you can do with ground that is constantly eroded away. A shaky staircase here, a couple wooden planks spanning a ravine there, a small ledge carved into the hillside barely as wide as my shoe... The trails are mostly short and I was able to cover most of the highlights that first evening. I was planning on hitting a few of the longer trails the next day thinking I could get an early start and beat the heat. Mother Nature had another plan. After returning to camp that night I sat out and watched a lightning storm pass along the horizon. As it got closer to bedtime I realized that the wind was picking up and I needed to prepare for a bumpy night. I packed away most of my things and headed up to the RTT, hoping for the best. The lightning was non stop for over three hours, the winds picked up and shook my RTT until I was convinced it was going to rip apart. I checked the weather app on my phone and sure enough, the storm that was far to the north had decided to swing south and was headed right for us. The thunderstorm warning was expecting 60 mph winds, quarter sized hail and torrential rain. About midnight I took cover in my Runner, abandoning my RTT. Since there weren't many trees in the area and I was 6 feet in the air surrounded by metal poles I decided I needed to get to better shelter. The winds were too strong for me to take the tent down so I had to leave it and just hope that the winds weren't going to be as bad as predicted. I sat in the car for a while, checking my weather app periodically, and rode out the worst of the storm. It did get windy, not sure if the 60 mph winds ever materialized or not, and we got a little bit of pea sized hail along with a ton of rain. At around 130am it looked like the storm had mostly passed and there was a brief pause in the rain. I took that as my opportunity to get back up top and hopefully get some sleep. I grabbed my bag and pillow and jumped out of the car and into 3" of water. My campsite was one of the low spots in the campground and I was now standing, in the middle of a lightning storm, in a pond. I quickly ran around the car to the ladder and scaled the rungs quickly thinking that not only was I now one of the tallest metal structures around but now I was standing in water. Thankfully the storm lost steam shortly after and I got a few hours sleep. I rolled out of bed ready to hit the trails only to realize that the storm had made a mess of the entire park. A lot of the ground in bentonite clay which becomes something like a mixture of peanut butter and concrete when wet. The trails are impassable. I try to head out and end up falling on my butt twice within the first half mile of trail. I give up and make day two a rest day - not much else to do in the area other than hike. My second night in Makoshika was much calmer and more restful and I got up ready to tackle Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.
sketchy trail conditions

amaxing view into the past

caprocks!

along the hadrosaur trail