Badlands and Bully Pulpit Golf Course of North Dakota

Oil Derricks

We drove north from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Badlands of North Dakota. The 'badlands' are so named from the American Indian's name of 'land bad' due to lack of water, extreme summer temperatures and the rugged terrain. To get here, we had the most picturesque drive past fields of wheat, corn and what looked like potatoes. Small, medium and large buttes were scattered along our route. Oil derricks dotted many fields.

Farmer mowing wild prairie grasses

Farmers were making the most of the wild prairie grasses that grew beside the road - they mowed them and rolled the grasses into bales - just like hay. They will use these to mix with the more nutritious hay during the long winters experienced in the Dakotas.

We passed a lot of antelopes, mainly bucks, and two lots were in groups of 3. In this photo there are only 2 bucks, but the third one was a bit further back.

When we stopped to get fuel, Murray called me to take a photo of this 1929 A-Model Ford. He said Joe Bill might be interested.

We stopped for morning tea in a small town, and the only place open for coffee and pancakes at 10am was the town saloon! The service was very good, and a coffee and a pancake each cost us $4 for both of us. Happy with that! However, I got a bit of a shock when I went to the Ladies. Thank goodness there was a lock on the door! Reminds me of our experience with Mike and Cindy when they took us to Mamou in Louisiana to enjoy some Cajun culture! Same deal there.

Entering Medora

Yesterday, around 12.45pm we arrived in Medora, North Dakota just as a thunderstorm hit. We had thunder, lightning, rain and some tiny hail. By the time we had checked into our campground and backed into our site, the water was so deep by our front steps, then we couldn't even get out to hook up to power and water. Thankfully our RV had a door on the driver's side (an optional extra in many RV's), and there were no puddles of water on that side. The same storm moved north east and hit right where our friends were camping at Lake Audubon. The storm caused a tornado a bit south of them - they got a lot of rain, and lost their satellite reception for a while, but it soon passed. Ready for us to arrive there tomorrow!

Today we drove the RV out the to the Bully Pulpit Golf Course, listed as one of America's 100 Greatist Public Golf Courses. A golf course architect says that of thousands of potential golf courses he has seen, this one is probably one of the best courses without an ocean view. Murray played 9 holes while I took photos, chatted to other visitors and took a walk - some of it uphill. Yes Clairie, I'll add it to my activity list! I have put several photos here, but no photo can capture the beauty of this place.

Tonight we caught a shuttle to a Cowboy Cookout. It was very similar to the one we did with Jenny and Peter in Jackson, Wyoming, only instead of the back-in-time wagon ride we just took a shuttle. However this cookout had the spectacular view of the Badlands as a bonus. Unfortunately it was overcast when we got up to the site, so the colours of the hills are very muted. Then while we were eating dinner, a thunderstorm passed over. Luckily for those staying on for the Medora Musical (we had seen it on a previous visit) the sun came out in time for the show to start at 8pm.