We actually thought about staying in the park since we have a National Parks pass that we had bought in the spring. We stopped in at the visitor's center which was right by our highway so we didn't have to go off route.
After the end of September, the park's campground is closed up with no water or electric, but it's still open for camping at $7.00 USD ($9.50 CAD). That's fair and reasonable, but we asked the ranger about other possibilities in the area. He said that on the other side of the river is Forest Service, and they have a campground there as well. I thought I had read about that one and it was $6.00 during regular season, but now it's the off season and it might be free. He also said they have some good hiking trails over there and gave us some maps.
The North Dakota Badlands at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Sherman, parked at the Visitors Center.
There was a 14 mile scenic drive through the park, but it was 28 miles round trip. We are always aware that Sherman only gets 10 miles to the gallon so we decided to give it a pass. Besides, we wanted to go for a hike.
We decided to check out the Forest Service campground on the other side of the river.
It was nice enough and we would have likely been the only ones there, but it was still $6.00 per night. Again, very fair...but if there was something free, that would be better, right? There was a gal there cutting grass and Ruth went over and spoke to her. She said that 8 miles further south there was another Forest Service campground with only three sites and a little closer to the highway...but it was free. She said we were welcome to park in one of the sites right where we were if we wanted to go for a hike and there would be no charge. Nice.
Sherman, parked at GPS 47.587503, -103.278414.
This is a nice inexpensive campground, however during our hike we decided to risk driving 8 miles further south to see what the free one was like.
Beautiful hike!
Me.
Ruth, enjoying the scenery.
Ruth, the best part of the scenery. :-)
It was great to be back out doing what we love to do. We did 4.6 miles (7.4 kms) in an hour and forty five minutes. We actually would have liked to have stayed out longer, but we didn't get started until about 3:00pm, so didn't want to risk it starting to get dark.
Me.
I like this photo...great scenery!
Those hills are across the river in the National Park.
We enjoyed our hike and hopped into Sherman to go check out the free campground further south. We arrived there to find three sites, each with a pinic table and a fire ring as well as a pit toilet. There was a sign that said it was supposed to be $6.00 per night, but there was nowhere to pay. And, the girl had told us that it was free.
Free camping at Summit Campground GPS 47.539730, -103.242011
This thing flew up onto the picnic table beside us. Anybody know what it is...?
No internet and no television. But, we play a lot of backgammon and cards and yahtzee. And, we have some movies and TV shows downloaded to watch on the laptop. And in the evening, we sort through the photos that we took that day and deleted the ones that we didn't make the grade.
Enjoying some relax time!
This morning, we got up at about 6:45am and did some driving right away. This way, you use the engine heat to warm things up rather than having to use the propane. Made it to the town of Belfield, ND where we found an unsecured internet signal to put this post up.
No idea where we'll end up tonight!
Yesterday's drive, 94 miles (150 kms).
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Thanks again for doing your Amazon shopping through our links!
And in Canada they have an Acer Chromebook laptop at a fantastc price. If you can get it to ship to the states, you also get the American exchange rate benefit which makes this laptop pretty darn cheap...
Thats a very nice spot glad that you got some hiking in.
ReplyDeleteWe were really happy to get a nice hike in too and it is really a beautiful area right here in the badlands.
DeleteIt looks like you found a nice spot for free. Nice area when the crowds are gone, too. That looks like a grouse checking you out!
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't the best spot but it also wasn't a bad spot and being free even made it better. We really love traveling before or after the busy season, you feel like you had the place to yourself.
DeleteYes, I thought it might have been one but I have been wrong before so we weren't going to take the chance by trying to identify it.
Prairie chicken? Good eatin"!
ReplyDeleteLol, when Kevin saw it he said "There's dinner!". ;-)
DeleteEnjoying some nice cheap American wine and beer I see :) Beautiful country there and your photos turned out great. That campsite is a steal!
ReplyDeleteWell, I wouldn't say cheap but it is cheaper than Canada that is for sure.
DeleteThis part of North Dakota sure was beautiful but other parts aren't quite as pretty.
Yup, Ruth is always the "best part of the scenery".
ReplyDeleteAwww, Bob you are too sweet! ;-)
DeleteI'd say a sharp-tailed grouse.
ReplyDeleteI would say you are right Judith! We knew we could count on you to identify it. :-)
DeleteGreat site!
ReplyDeleteIt was a good site but not a great site! We could still see the road and got a little traffic noise but it wasn't too bad and we slept just fine.
DeleteWe were in Belfield getting fuel last week-end. Exciting place wasn't it? NOT! We sure didn't time this very well since we are actually back in Billings. I am really behind on blog posts. But the badlands are so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYah, it was a pretty dead little town. We liked Bowman much better, it seemed like a really nice place to live.
DeleteYes, the badlands are beautiful and such interesting land formations.
Great pictures, we really enjoyed that park.
ReplyDeleteThank you Chuck and Anneke! I wish we had more time to explore the park itself.
DeleteI'm addicted!
ReplyDeleteKeep the posts coming?
You guys got me thinking about crossing the southern border for a couple of weeks over Xmas and New Years. I have a question for anybody and everybody; not being well versed in Spanish, is there an advantage in getting a Mexico travel map in paper form, written in Spanish or will I just generate more frustration for myself?
No worries the posts will keep coming. :-)
DeleteNo, I don't think it would make a difference or not whether the map is in English or in Spanish. The first one we got was in English and and it was a tourist one with lots of places of interest and a little blurb about each at the front of the map book but we couldn't seem to find it last year so we got a Spanish one. The Guía Roji map book is by far the best one to have. You can purchase it through Amazon or you can buy it a most of the bigger Pemex gas stations. They usually keep them behind the counter of the Oxxo stores that are at those Pemex stations.
Enjoying your posts. It is a bit of fresh air each day. We do what you do in Jan. , Feb. East coast to Florida.
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear that you are enjoying our posts. We have done the same down the East Coast a few times ourselves. It is definitely easier finding places out in the west but we still seemed to find enough nice places out east too.
DeleteYou sure are more strict than I am. $7 is fine by me, I'd rather have the place earlier and spend the day hiking. But that's what is great about RVing, everyone does it their way. We stayed in TRNP for about a month, 2 weeks in each campground, and really loved it. Gorgeous is the word. Love the picture of the two of you there.
ReplyDeleteYou are right $7 is a good price for being right in the park but then you have to add on 35% to that and then because we still haven't made it to a bank machine we would be charged for writing a cheque from our US bank account that we have in Canada, where as just up the road about 5 miles was a free site. We wish we would have had more time to spend in this area because it would be great for hiking. We certainly envy you with being able to spend a whole month here but we have to be in the Mexico City area before the end of the month and we don't want to have real long travel days. We are managing to do some hiking though and we are happy about that.
DeleteWe also like to get to places earlier in the day but for this trip we are having to do things a little differently, like having to take time out of the day in some of the towns along the way to find some free internet rather that having to buy data for our mifi and using it in the evening from our boondocking site.