Fargo to Billings, 6/28

Sorry I missed a day posting to the blog. Our bed and breakfast near Billings, Montana had a sudden lapse in wireless internet service when we got in last night. Namely, they must have had their wireless router plugged into an outlet that turned off when they switched off the lights and went to bed. Plus, I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day anyway. Driving across the entire state of North Dakota, plus a chunk of Montana, is a serious endeavor, it turns out. Our B&B host near Billings told us he has never driven the entire state in his life.


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The drive across North Dakota was, in Kristin's words, desolate. I don't think there's a better word for it. The eastern part of the state was endless green farmland. First flat as a pancake, and then the occasional rolling hill. As you go further west, the hills turn into large green mounds, and the crop cover starts to look more drier, its color washed out. We couldn't believe how few towns we saw along the way. Bismark came and went as barely a blip on our radar. I am glad we kept our tank pretty full here because every exit basically warned us not to get off I-94 to try to find a gas station or a cafe with a big blue sign that said "No Services." I suppose it makes sense, considering the state has just over half a million residents, spread out amongst the vast expanse of farmland covering the state. Of course, there were a few gems along the way. Here's the small town of Oriska (population 128):



Then after that, we stopped in Jamestown, ND to look at the world's largest buffalo sculpture, walk around a reproduction of a town in the wild west, and walk through the Jamestown Buffalo Museum. We saw some buffalo from a distance, particularly some white buffalo that I remember hearing played a role in Native American mythology. Here are a few shots:



After a while, the big mounds I described that dotted the landscape became more rocky and we spotted them more frequently. Our source of entertainment slowly switched from discussing the merits and mechanics of the process of mowing the medians of the highway (the mowing team was out in force) to spotting hills. Then suddenly, the hills turned into an amazing canyon, The Painted Canyon at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Unfortunately, I don't think the pictures do it justice. The canyon really did look painted. Apparently, the hills are made of loose clay, so they change every year after the rains. Then the red colors in some of the hills are from natural fires that have ignited the coal veins deep within the hills and baked the clay to that vibrant orange/red. If we were lucky, we would have been able to spot a smoldering hill somewhere in the distance, but we weren't that lucky:


This area was called the badlands of North Dakota, which makes sense because I don't think you could really farm land like this. Nor would it be easy to have livestock graze here. This landscape continued on into Montana, though as we got near billings everything started to look more like the cattle country I was imagining for eastern Montana. Billings was a small looking city, but we stayed at a B&B about 8 miles north of town. Our hosts were very nice, and they accommodated us even though we were late and didn't get there until 10pm. Their ranch was very isolated, up a gravel road, and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. However, they gave us our breakfast that night instead of in the morning because we were afraid of trying to go back into town and then not finding the ranch again. It was a beautiful place, but it was not my cup of tea. I don't like staying in someone's home because then it's like being a house guest rather than a hotel patron. I'll tell you more about the ranch tomorrow!