Off the Beaten Path

Today we went on another scenic byway from Bismark to Lake Sakakawea without the trailer. It was beautiful.  Every time we stopped to visit a historic site, the peace and quiet were amazing.  We rarely encountered anyone.  There was no major interstate providing background noise.  We primarily heard birds, lots of birds.  Therefore, I’m reconsidering where we go when we leave North Dakota.  I’d like to find a way to spend more time off the interstates.  I’m working on it.

At the first stop, I saw several prairie dogs.  They are smaller than I thought.  Dart never saw them, although they saw him.  I only got the one picture below.  Look closely and you will see the little guy in the middle of the picture. (Update: It turns out, I’m not sure if this is a prairie dog.  It is probably something else but I have not been able to identify it.  I know the picture is not good, but if you know what it is, please let me know.)

We saw Ring-Necked Pheasants, turkeys, bobolinks, lots of red-winged blackbirds, and birds we never saw before and won’t be able to figure out what they were.  We went to several historic sites for the Lewis and Clark trail and ventured along the Missouri River.  We stopped at the dam that creates Sakakawea Lake and visited the Army Corps of Engineers campground.  It is awesome.  We will spend some time in the future looking at the Army Corps campgrounds.  We may come back to this campground sometime and spend a week or two.

Dart loved the historic sites.  I was able to walk him off lead and he stuck to the trail and didn’t chase any animals.  He had a great time.  I kept his leash handy in case he didn’t listen, but he was great the whole time.  We got a lot of walking in today and it was really lovely.

I took a picture of the following rock for my mom.  She loves rocks.

We think the bird in the campground is a Kingbird.  I found my Peterson Guide which works better for me than my other bird guide.  I got the following bad shot of a Kingbird.

As usual, I always seem to have the wrong lens on the camera for my pictures.   One lens is good for scenery and the other for wildlife.  I have to switch between the two and had the wrong lens for the bird and the prairie dog.

The following picture is from a spillway at the dam that is undergoing some maintenance.  It is very big.  This dam would take 2 million freight cars to carry the material to build the dam and the lake is almost 200 miles long (according to The Most Scenic Drives in America).

We also saw a power plant next to a coal mine.  How convenient!