Two-Wheeling Across the Dakotas - Day 3: The Enchanted Highway and Camping in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park

 Thursday, June 2

Soon after breakfast, we broke camp and left this last look at how crowded this particular BLM dispersed camping site has become:

Yep, there's RVs as far as you can see along the edge

Enroute to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we made a slight detour to check out the scrap metal sculptures along the Enchanted Highway.  Welded/built by Gary Greff to try and get folks to visit his hometown of Regent, North Dakota.  Kind of a "Build it and they will come" approach.  He started this work in 1989 and continues to maintain the sculptures.

Kind of neat in a kitschy way, something perhaps you'd expect to see along Route 66?  More info here: www.ndtourism.com/best-places/7-ways-be-awed-enchanted-highway

It was, very windy today, and the mileage on the VRRV suffered accordingly.

Tin Family

We didn't for the Teddy Rides Again sculpture but here's a pic from Martha's phone:

Teddy Rides Again

Pheasants on the Prairie

Fisherman's Dream

Grasshoppers

Deer Crossing

Geese in Flight

We had left the Badlands of South Dakota at 7:30 AM and were camped and eating a late lunch by 3:30 PM.  We got one of the last remaining "first come first served" campsites.  Note, it appears one should try and get to a campsite like this before 2PM.

We rode out in the evening to check out the sights, but didn't do much exploring of the loop road.  We did, while stopped waiting for the pilot car at a road paving section of the loop, spot a small herd of Buffalo.

I was wishing I still had my Sony HX-80 camera with the 30X zoom but the telephoto lens I had recently acquired will do I guess:

All the greenery by the way, is atypical we were told.  They had a very wet Spring apparently.  It's usually browner in this area.

We returned to camp when things started getting chilly, a pretty good day in spite of all the driving.  We'll be here for a couple of days I think.