Wild Horses

Thursday, June 30, 2011

The southern portion of Theodore Roosevelt National Park is in the Badlands of North Dakota near a little town called Medora.  And I have not had a scooter ride I enjoyed any more than this one.  If I had counted the number of times I said "wow!" on this day, it would have been in the hundreds for sure. 

Prairie dog towns are numerous alongside the roads and stretch for hundreds of yards in all directions.  The little sentinels standing guard, the mothers caring for the young ones and others just scurrying around made me smile a lot.  The little communities seem to be a good model for many creatures, including ourselves.

Along the Little Missouri River I found a herd of bison but couldn't get a good picture of them.  They weren't moving much, just grazing slowly among the cottonwoods and clearly in their element. 

The rock formations are more than fascinating and could consume many hours of just looking at them.  I crossed the road to get a closer look at this one, stepping off the pavement and onto what appeared to be a dried up mud hole.  In an instant, my left foot sunk up to my ankle in slick, slimy clay and was held fast by it.  When I tried to withdraw my foot, the mud held onto my dock sider shoe and wouldn't let go.  Uh oh.  I was stuck.  Luckily for me another tourist was nearby, saw my predicament and came over to lend me a hand.  After several minutes of careful extrication, I was free, but with a big mess on my foot.

To be continued.  Slow connection preventing picture upload - again.