Day 60: Where the Buffalo Roam

We saw a few Bison (aka Buffalo in America, but not actually Buffalo) yesterday at a distance, but were really hoping to see some closer up so this morning after eating some breakfast at the campsite we jumped in the car and went back out onto the scenic drive. We didn’t see any on our way up the road, but did see a herd of wild horses across a valley when we were turning around! Upon closer inspection I did see a lone bull lying near the horses, but so far away he kind of looked like rocks. As we were driving back to the campground we noticed the car ahead of us was stopped - there was another bull crossing the street! We got a look from pretty close then kept going. We then encountered another traffic jam. This time it was a while herd of Bison! There were young calves and all. It was an amazing sight and we stared and watched for a good while. We were worried we were blocking traffic until we realized all the cars around us were stopped and staring too.

On to Montana

From the park, we headed west to Glendive, Montana. That means another state is done and now there are only three or four to go! Glendive is a few towns into Montana past the border and is where my route leaves interstate 94 and gets back to quieter roads.

In town, we went and poked around the frontier museum, which had dinosaur fossils as well as other geological items and a lot of local artifacts. I then found a good looking cafe a bit off the beaten path for lunch. It was a great spot and we both got our coffee fix along with some good food.

Makoshika State Park is Montana’s biggest and one I’d been looking forward to for a while since my friend Edie pointed it out to me and asked it I’d be going through. It’s another badlands park, but there have been a lot of dinosaur fossils found there. The visitor center displayed some of these fossils and also explained how the soil layers you can see in the landscape translate to different eras, which I’d been wondering about.

We secured a campsite for the night, then went on a couple hikes. The first was fo a natural bridge and the second down into a canyon and around the bottom of it. There was even a picnic table back there for a snack (there must be another path down, there no way that thing got carried down the way we came…).

After hiking, we got some groceries to cook dinner over the fire and got our tents pitched. We’d seen a sign earlier for trivia at the park, so we went down to check it out. It was a fun time even though we were doing pretty terribly. We have all a lot of the same holes in our knowledge, which doesn’t make for a great trivia team. On the last question we could wager points and we figured we were going to lose anyway so go big or go home and bet them all. The last question was about how much the most expensive cow went for at auction… we had no clue so took a wild guess. It turns out we were close enough and somehow won the whole thing 🤣.

Cooking food over a campfire always feels more like camping than with my little stove and is a treat. We grilled some veggies and burgers relatively successfully (only a few sacrifices to the fire) and chatted and watched the stars come out.

It’s been really fun road tripping with Noel these past few days and I’m excited to hang out with her in LC when I get back and compare notes on the rest of our journeys. Bubba and I head back out on the road tomorrow bright and early to beat the heat and the wind.