August 18, 2020

The Backroad to Devils Pass

Magpie Camp Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota

Another move today, 15 miles down the highway and then 15 miles into the grasslands to Magpie Camp. 

This area is so pleasing to me.  I love the openness, the red gravel roads, the muted colors, the remoteness, the softly rolling hills, round hay bales, rocky buttes and outcroppings, the stillness, the cattle ranches, and the big blue sky.  We saw prairie dogs and pronghorn antelope.

We went out this afternoon to explore Devils Pass.  The Mahh Daah Hey Trail runs over this pass. We were told that if we took the Goat Pass Road we could travel most of the way in our Jeep. Otherwise, it was a 3-mile hike there and another 3 miles back…and it was hot today!  The car thermometer read 101 for most of the day but rose to 106 degrees in the bottom of the valley.   It’s a dry, stifling heat, like oven air.  The humidity was 17%.   

We wound our way up to Devils Pass.  This is a natural ledge or ridge connecting two hills.  The path across is about 12-foot-wide with steep 150-foot drop-offs on either side.  Hikers and cyclists are warned not to hike when this pass is wet, the dusty later on top is a fine clay (bentonite) and mixed with water, it becomes a slippery slurry. 

The view was outstanding.  We tried to capture a sense of perspective and scale, so look for Tim in the pictures. 

We took a gravel and dirt road further and drove along the border of Elkhorn Ranch and then the Badlands Scenic Area.  I loved this part of the day because we were in the bottom and I really felt like I was in the Badlands and not just looking at it!  I didn’t take very many pictures…I was enjoying the ride!

The more we travel deeper into the middle of the grasslands, the more oil rigs and other evidence of oil industry we see.  It mars the landscape, detracts from it.  The disturbance is the price we pay for the way we live, the need for energy to fuel our modern society.

Every place has a story.

We were hot and tired and the RV was 99 degrees inside, so we turned on the generator and ran the air conditioning this evening. 

I took an evening walk.