What a Difference Two Years Makes!

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Unit

We made a quick jog through Montana before entering North Dakota.  Our goal was to spend the night at the Lewis & Clark State Park outside the town of Williston.  It has been two years since we were in this lovely state... and I could hardly wait!

My, oh my, have things changed in North Dakota!  Since we were last here, the tiny town of Williston has become an oil boom town, doubling in size (from just over 14,000 folks to nearly 27,000).  Traffic was bumper to bumper, cars buzzed past us, heavy trucks rumbled around us, and construction was everywhere.  After all our remoteness, we were feeling like pilgrims in an unholy land.

We had also failed to recognize until we were half-way through town that we had arrived on a Friday afternoon, essentially during rush hour.  Knowing that the state park was on a lake, we decided it would be chocker-block full of folks for the weekend.  Figuring that Theodore Roosevelt's North Unit would be less of a draw for weekenders, we decided to drive the additional 60 miles.  Thankfully, within about 30 miles, the boom town and most of the drilling support were behind us and the landscape returned to familiar farms, ranches, grasslands, and Badlands.

We arrived at TRNP's North Unit at dusk... and under cloudless skies.  Settling into our campsite, we began drying out, hanging wet towels, rain gear, and Roxanne's bedding from every available outside hook and flat surface.  We sat out in the cool breeze under the stars and breathed a great sigh of relief.  We were back in the States, the weather was warm and dry... we were definitely happy campers!

The next morning, we took the 14-mile tour on the park road.  As usual, TRNP didn't disappoint.  We spied deer, bison, prairie dogs, and lovely vistas.

On our way back down the park road, we stopped to view a herd of big horn sheep in the distance.  Park Ranger John was peering through binoculars, counting the sheep as I set up my tripod.  He told us that the sheep had become infected with a deadly strain of pneumonia brought on by contact with domestic sheep.  So far 30-40 percent of the state's big horn sheep population have died as a result of the pneumonia outbreak.  While hiking in the park, he had recently found a mature ram dead from the infection.

Big horn sheep at Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit

As we chatted, he asked where we were from and if we had ever visited TRNP before.  We told him that this was probably our sixth trip and that we were shocked how the area has changed in the past several years.  He began to tell us some of the resulting casualties from the oil boom.  John is a fourth-generation rancher and has been a park ranger for nearly 40 years.  He said that farms and ranches are being lost, the landscape is changing, and ecosystems are being destroyed. At one time he feared that the park would be all that was left of what North Dakota use to be.  He explained that if the drilling had been limited to 50 wells that the area could have absorbed the changes fairly well.  Instead, the State had allowed 212 wells in the area.  Now that the oil boom has waned, he hoped at least some of what has been lost could be reclaimed.

We meandered out of the park.  Change had certainly become a reoccurring theme during this year's adventure.  Our next stop was TRNP's South Unit and my wild horses.  We have not been to the park since the last horse roundup which dropped the herd population from about 170 to 88 mature horses.  How much has the South Unit changed?  We knew there was only one way to find out... we turned southbound on Highway 85.