Heading Back East: Montana and North Dakota

August 25, 2023

It was now time to start heading back to time zones near and dear to us. A visit with our kids in Minnesota was fast approaching (yay!), but there were still several hundred miles between here and there. In this lifestyle, we seldom move anywhere quickly, so we meandered across eastern Montana and North Dakota over several days. We left early Monday morning to begin the long trek.

We left the Bitterroot Mountains Monday morning under drizzly skies

Route 200 across Montana was gorgeous, even in the rain

A scenic pull-off for lunch

After a while, we left the forests behind

By late afternoon, the weather was beginning to clear, and we stayed overnight at a pleasant Kiwanis Club rest area in Lewistown, Montana. Our campsite was adjacent to a small airport, and it was fun to see a couple of planes take off. 

Lewistown Kiwanis Club Rest Area

We were treated to a beautiful sunset that evening!

The next morning was beautifully sunny, and we continued eastward through the rest of Montana. 

Part of the road had been torn-up for rebuilding, so we had to drive on gravel for about 10 miles

Lots of farmland out here

Back roads are usually far more interesting (with much less traffic) than the interstates

Starting to look like badlands territory

Our stop for the night was just outside the town of Sydney, Montana. The campground we stayed at was free, but we needed to get a permit at the sheriff's office. When we arrived at the office, we weren't sure we were in the right place...

We were a little intimidated by the bulletproof glass in the reception area, but we soon discovered that we were, in fact, in the right place. It just so happened that the jail entrance/exit/visiting area shared the same space as the general sheriff's office. A friendly lady got us all set up and we headed to the campground. It was a hot afternoon, and we were the only ones there, but we had a pleasant stay. 

The park was located adjacent to the Yellowstone River

We couldn't resist pretending we were kids and riding the fun little zipline

Gotta check out how this thing works 😉

Shortly after pulling in to this campsite, we became quickly reacquainted with Midwest humidity and insect life. For the last several months, we had been blissfully free (mostly) of these nuisances. We thought that Montana was a little early to be having to deal with this, but then we realized we were only a few miles from the North Dakota border.  

After a peaceful night's sleep, we continued our march east. 

More farmland

Lots of oil wells after entering North Dakota

Sunflowers! (facing away from us 😞)

Our next destination was a free recreation area on Lake Sakakawea, formed by the damming of the Missouri River. What a beautiful setting this was right on the lake! And if that wasn't awesome enough, we had the entire recreation area to ourselves, with only the waterfowl and occasional boater as company. Oh, and the flies and yellow jackets--they provided us with a considerable amount of company as well.

The long gravel road to the recreation area--at least it was in good shape

No one else here!

Like its more famous western neighbor, North Dakota is also "big sky" country, and that means big sunsets.

The big glowing cloud in the above pictures was actually a storm across the lake. It didn't hit us, but it was fun to watch the lightning later on that evening...

The next morning, Julie was awakened just in time for sunrise by what she thought was the sound of a loon. Whether or not there was an actual loon, the sunrise was stunning! Aside from bird noises, everything was quiet and still.

Some fog in the distance added to the drama

That may or may not be a loon

Thursday was a warm sunny day, with a pleasant afternoon breeze off the lake. We basically just putzed around the camper and enjoyed our surroundings. Rick lubricated the slide (which had been making some scary noises lately), repaired some broken tie-wraps, and made bread, while Julie coated the screens and sprayed the deck rug with permethrin in the hopes of discouraging the insect life from hanging around too close to us. We also spent a good amount of time trying to decide if we wanted to keep with our original plan and stay at this campsite for 3 nights (and drive almost 7 hours to the next destination) or leave after 2 nights and find another place to stay so as to break up the drive. In the end, Rick decided he was okay with the long drive, so we stayed at our lakeside site until Saturday morning. 

Thursday afternoon provided us a little excitement in the form of a severe thunderstorm warning promising potential 60 mph winds, golf ball sized hail, and "continuous cloud to ground lightning". We decided to stow the deck and Rick disconnected the solar, just to be safe.

Sunny skies giving way to storms

It turned out the the bulk of the storms went to the north and to the south of our location, sparing us the worst. We did have quite the range of sunniness (and lack thereof) and windiness throughout that afternoon, though.

A double rainbow!

Another gorgeous sunset

After another relaxing day on Friday, we headed off on Saturday to our first destination in Minnesota--Itasca State Park.

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