I fall asleep on Wednesday night about 10pm figuring I’ll wake up with the sun and get an early start on the day. Well, I wake up a bunch of times during the night due to critters crawling around the car, the cold night air, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I sleep fairly well in the back of the Element but the first night takes some adjustment. I awake to another sunny day at Lake Itasca ready to get going since it’s got to be about 6:30 a.m. I grab the mobile phone and hit the button to see 8:20 a.m. — what??? Wow, guess once I got used to it the car was more comfortable than I thought.
Before I fell asleep I looked at the road atlas and decide I should aim for Theodore Rosevelt National Park (the north unit – it’s split into two separate parks) in western North Dakota. I get the car rolling by 9 and by 10:30 a.m. I’m out of the forest and onto the plains…where I stay for the next 7 hours or so.
Rolling and flowing, North Dakota’s landscape is an ever-repeating sea of “amber waves of grain” (which it turns out is also the case for northern Montana, but more on that later). After a long time on an extremely repetitious Highway 2, I turn off and head toward Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The drive is highlighted by a rather impressive bridge heading over one section of Lake Sakakawea on Highway 23 in New Town. Another curious sighting is about 30 miles of oil pipeline along the road. Apparently, North Dakota is the new oil capital of the U.S. – Oil drilling sites are going up everywhere.
I arrive at the park about 5 minutes before the visitor center closes. Luke at the office helps me out after every single person who works at the park (except for the field ranger) says “see you tomorrow Luke” on their way out the door. So, 2 minutes before closing Luke gives me directions to the campground and I say “see you tomorrow Luke” and head deeper into the park…where I meet that field ranger. He’s really nice when he pulls me over for speeding in a national park. Not much to do on a Thursday evening except let the only guy left exploring the park know he’s doing 35 in a 25 I suppose. After he lets me off with a warning I get back to exploring the awesome rock formations and the buffaloes chilling out right next to the road.
I find a good campsite and turn in early. This time I set my alarm to make sure I wake up and get going with the sunrise. The sun is just peeking out behind the hills as I get back on the road. I’ve decided the next stop is Glacier National Park and figure it’s about 8 or 9 hours of driving to get there. “I could tell you exactly how long it will take you,” says the GPS from the glove box. “I thought I told you to keep quiet,” I reply, which is followed by a muffled, robotic-sounding, “I’m just saying…”
Rolling amber waves of grain – take 2. Seriously, the drive is rather monotonous on highway 2 across northern Montana. My highlight reel consists of a wide piece of farm machinery that takes up almost two lanes of the highway and a curiously large number of U.S. Border Patrol trucks patrolling the Canadian borderlands.
As I near my tenth hour of driving I tell my GPS I don’t want to hear it and decide I’m too tired to hit Glacier National Park today (there’s much behind this deviation, but that’s a story better told in person). In fact, let’s hang a left and see if the landscape changes any. Not really. As I grow more tired and neared my 12th hour of driving I decide that a motel in Great Falls, Montana looks like the spot to stop. So, here I am in a motel room on their complimentary wifi doubling the budget of the first two camping nights and not feeling bad about that at all. Tomorrow is a new day and I’m going to aim for Yellowstone and/or Grand Teton National Parks. I may even cheat and map out a route on Google Maps…just don’t tell my GPS.
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