JOURNEY TO THE BLACK HILLS DAY 3 - FORT PECK LAKE - CHARLES RUSSELL WILDLIFE REFUGE

May 19, 2015

We were up bright and early. Kinsey believes a hearty breakfast is the right way to start the day. And they call this camping?

Ouevos Rancheros

Whilst Kinsey stuffed her face I kept watch.

Australian Shepherd Guard Dog

From consulting the map Kinsey's plan had been to drive into the Charles Russell Wildlife refuge. The map indicated dirt roads and we do dirt roads all the time. Well, Shadow ain't doing the dirt roads in this refuge. We quickly found out that the roads are really more suitable for four wheel vehicles and at the very least high centered ones. Shadow would have been high centered in a Minnesota minute.

Charles Russel Wildlife Refuge

 Not to be deterred we set out to walk the road, aka Willow Creek Road, heading down the west side of Fort Peck Lake. Fort Peck Lake was formed by the damming of the Missouri River and it's a really big lake. We knew we wouldn't get that far, this refuge is enormous. But, we got much less far than we'd hoped. First, after the rains the roads were still muddy. The mud around here is something else. I'm guessing it's some type of clay and believe me you could sculpt with the stuff. It stuck in the hair between my toes so bad I had to stop every five seconds to try and chew the it out. Secondly, only about a mile in we ran into a cattle guard that neither of us wanted to try and cross.

The views of the lake were beautiful but we were very disappointed. Trying to make lemonade out of this lemon we decided that these primitive roads act as a buffer keeping a lot of tourists out of it and that is surely a good thing. We drove over the damn and down the other side but it was the same thing. If you want to do an in depth exploration of the Charles Russel Wildlife Refuge you'd best bring a four wheel drive vehicle.

Fort Peck Lake

We stopped in at the marina and Kinsey asked about hiring a guide to take us into the refuge. At the Interpretive Center she had seen some awesome photos of just how beautiful it is in there. We got some names and numbers and maybe we'll come back this way when we can actually get back into the refuge. We'll chalk this up to a reconnaissance stop and certainly be better prepared next time.

On the way back we stopped at the Spillway overlook. The spillway is for overflow when there's flooding. I wonder how often that happens. Right now they are working on expanding it. We ended up having a picnic at the Downstream Campground and walking the nature trail. Sadly, my new BFF Harper, that I met yesterday, wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Downstream Campground Fort Peck

If you haven't already, you can read the story of why we ventured to the Black Hills here.

Ciao for now.
Molly Montana

©Kinsey Barnard

JOURNEY TO THE BLACK HILLS DAY 2 - SHELBY TO GLASGOW & FORT PECK

It must have been well below freezing last night. Little Shadow was covered in ice this morning. It was pretty cold in Clem too. I crawled into bed with Kinsey.

Kinsey got us up and at 'em at the crack of dawn. We were on the road again by 7:45 am. We drove east into the rising sun.

We only got as far as Chester before Kinsey had to stop. In the morning, after a couple of cups of coffee, Kinsey suffers from TB aka tiny bladder. I took advantage of the break myself. The railroad pretty much runs parallel to Hwy 2 and at this stop a train charged through right in front of us. I haven't really ever been that close to a moving train before. I wasn't scared at all. I kind of liked it. It's powerful rumble was exciting. Earlier we had seen a tanker train, carrying oil I suspect. It stretched out forever and looked like a long black snake. It made me wonder why people seem to think a pipeline would be more environmentally dangerous. The potential for a nasty spill in an inconvenient place seems huge with a train. Not to mention all the fuel burned moving it around. But, what do I know I'm just a dog.

Container Train

Our destination today was Glasgow, Montana. The drive was about 265 miles and took us four and a half hours. Kinsey is kind of a dawdler. She sets the cruise control for 60 mph even though the speed limit is 70. Since she's rubber necking all the time I guess I'm ok with that. We weren't holding anyone up. We could have stopped in the road and not held anyone up.

All the towns we passed were tiny throwbacks to another time. Many still not having paved streets. Very few roads off 2 were paved. Looked like there had been a whole lot of rain going on here because many of those roads were muddy, rutted messes. That must have made the wheat growers happy.

The prairie seems to have a beauty all it's own it stretches out as far as the eye can see like a lumpy green carpet. The view would be uninterrupted if it weren't for grain elevators. I've never seen so many grain elevators in all my live long days. It went on and on and I went to sleep.

Nap Time

Kinsey had plotted our stops on Map Quest and picked out some RV parks. When we got to Glasgow the first thing she did was look for the RV park she had down for Glasgow. Naturally, we couldn't find it. Finally, Kinsey called for directions and that' when we discovered we were looking for the wrong place. She was looking for the place in Medora, North Dakota. I suppose this sort of thing happens a lot to senior citizens.

We found our way to the Shady Rest RV park and no kidding it had been raining. The minute we entered the place we wished we could back out but there's no backing up towing Shadow. The proprietress was less than welcoming. Kinsey got out to take a look at the spot she had for us. It was a mud bog. We would have just ruined Clementine tracking in the gunk. Kinsey inquired if there were any other parks in Glasgow. She reluctantly said across the street at the Cottonwood Inn. Asked what it was like she said she had no idea. Turned out you can see it from the highway if you're looking the right way. Kinsey, trying to be polite, said she'd like to look at it but would return if it wasn't any better. The woman, in a very surly tone said, "It's first come first serve!" Like people would be lining up for that mess. Kinsey replied, "Oh, well, worse comes to worse there's a lot of room out there on the prairie." The woman didn't think that was very funny. We ended up at the Cottonwood. It wasn't muddy at all and was all around a much nicer place.

The reason we wanted to stop here was Fort Peck on the Missouri River. This is also where the Charles Russell National Wildlife Refuge is. After grabbing some lunch we headed out. Fort Peck is about 20 miles from Glasgow. The first thing we discovered was a beautiful campground we could have stayed at for less than half the cost of the Cottonwood. If we ever come back this is where we will stay.

We both needed to stretch our legs so we took off on the nature trail. Of all the incredibly lucky things, we ran into Emily, a young mother, walking her Bernese Mountain Dog and her baby in a stroller. As per my usual, I went bonkers. I wanted to play with that dog that looked like a much larger  version of me so bad and I got to. There were no people around so we were let loose. Harper (that's my new gal pal) and I raced around like nobody's business. That big girl couldn't catch me. It was so much fun. My photographer was so busy shooting the breeze with her new found friend she didn't make much of an effort to photograph my joy.

Dogs at Play

Emily suggested we visit the Interpretive Center. Of course, I couldn't go in but Kinsey said it was very impressive. Especially considering Fort Peck is out in the middle of nowhere. They had dinosaurs in there and other good stuff as you can see from the photos.

Fort Peck Interpretive Center

Fort Peck Interpretive Center

Fort Peck Interpretive Center

Kinsey spoke with the staff who said the dirt roads could get pretty nasty after a rain and they'd had a ton. This is exactly what we had feared. Shadow isn't an off road vehicle by any stretch. Kinsey is hoping the sun and wind will dry them out so we can do at least a little exploring tomorrow. We'll see.

If you haven't already, you can read the story of why we ventured to the Black Hills here.

Ciao for now.
Molly Montana

©Kinsey Barnard