Mammoth in the Bad Lands, Day 9

 Tue 6/28

We got up rather early--at night we were able to open our bedroom window shades and so when morning came at 6am, it shone right in, giving us a natural and pleasant wake-up call.  There was no especial rush about the morning, although the weather was gradually getting warmer each day, so I wanted to walk a few of the nearby trails before it got really hot. We got on the road at about 9am, I guess.

Our first stop was the fossil trail, a little boardwalk around a dry wash. At intervals on the way were signs with preserved fossil specimens from the area and informative explanations. More interesting to me was the cross section diagram of the strata in which each fossil was found--most were at least one layer or two below where we were walking.

But most interesting were the two paleontologists (maybe students) digging under a small nylon shelter in the middle of the wash. They were uncovering the fossil bones of a medium sized animal and--my apologies--I didn't catch the name of what type of animal.  As we watched, they talked about the excavation. It appeared they'd been working about one week and had found a few small fossil bones and were now working on the clavicle and could see a backbone coming into view next to it. They said the discovery had been made and reported by a park visitor, who'd noticed the strange shapes surfacing through the mud wash.  I guess from what I could see, they were digging about eight inches down.  They were digging with what appeared to be an icepick--a small, pointed tool which they were hitting with a little hammer. I guess that way they were able to break away the mud and not risk tearing up the fossil.

So cool.

After that we went on to a couple of short walks called the "Door Trail" and the "Window Trail". The parking lot for those was so crowded and the number of people milling around so large, I didn't really want to stop. But a parking spot opened up down at the end and we walked around a little bit.

After that we came back and walked the "Cliff Trail", which was basically just a boardwalk with a lot of stair steps making a circle through cedars along a cliff. Really quite lovely, and  I saw a spotted towhee singing his little heart out. But there was nothing much to recommend it. Unless, of course, you have kids who need to blow off energy. We didn't, so we returned.

 Somehow it was time for lunch by then. Or almost time, after doing the dishes. We took a longish lunch break and then headed "to town."  Ed wanted to fill up the Jeep with gas, so I checked the nearest gas stations and noticed a place called "Wall Drug." in the town of Wall. Just 20 minutes north of the park. I'd heard of that somewhere and sometime and have no memory where or how. But nonetheless, Wall was the larger of the nearby towns so that's where we went.

 

And yes, my vague memory was spot on. Wall Drug is this huge tourist trap with food. It consists of five or so interconnected buildings with a big cafe in the back. We didn't go to the cafe or even look at the menu, which was a shame. But we just weren't hungry at that point. There was a nice ice cream store, which we stared at through the windows, and a candy/fresh fudge shop, in which I spent five dollars on a quarter pound of dark chocolate caramel fudge.  When we returned to the Mammoth, I put it in the fridge and forgot about it. Oh, well. It will be there when I want it.

 They also had a magnificent book store. I could have spent hours in there!  Every book you imagined or dreamed of on western subjects--prairies, badlands, animals, flora, native Americans, fiction, nonfiction=--all of a western theme.  They even had a Lakota Sioux/English dictionary.

But some of us were ready to return, so back we went. After getting the gas, of course.

For our evening walk Molly and I went off-trail, going past the lodge and visitor center to a big wash beside the road where they have pipes diverting the runoff from the badlands under the road. We saw a pair of Rock Wrens!!!!  So very, very skinny and long-beaked, with moderately long tails. There's nothing else they could be. How cool is that?

There are some views from my afternoon walk with Molly -- taken from the rocks overlooking camp.

There's our Mammoth in the distance

Back at camp we also saw a pair of Mountain Bluebirds feeding a young one. This one is saying, gimme gimme gimme--

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cliff Swallow peeking out of its mud nest  

Mammoth in the Bad Lands, Day 8

 Monday 6/27

Got on the road fairly early to look for wildlife. We found a couple of bighorn sheep by the road--they only had small horns, so we took them for goats. But apparently they were young ones or females.

Then on to the longest, largest prairie dog town I ever imagined. Tons of bison, too.

 

Mule deer

 

The scenic overlooks were mostly full of cars, but I wanted to go on to the end of the road. Forgot to mention--I didn't have my bearings about me, and I was trying to navigate by paper map because sources had told me that google maps wasn't accurate out there, and so I got us going the wrong way out of the park. This was at the main gate, to the north--not the one we'd come in. When we turned around to re-enter, the ranger at the gate demanded our pass. I assume she would have made us pay, too, if we hadn't happened to have the pass. (See previous day entry)

No matter. Fully confused, I turned to google maps on my phone and it easily showed us where we'd gone astray. Silly me.

So. On we went to the end of the park at the west. The road turned to gravel at some point, and a little rough in places where the grader had "bounced"--I guess that's the term. It left ridges, like a washboard.
Eventually we came to my chosen destination--a campground with a toilet. Pit toilet, of course. The campground was completely dry and without hookups, and oddly enough, situated in the middle of a prairie dog town. Only a few tent campers were around (not the campers, but their tents), plus the seasonal worker who came to clean the bathroom. I'd been wondering why so many of the dog mounds had cages at or near the entrance, and he explained that they occasionally trapped the dogs so they could check them and give them their vaccinations.

Cool place. We wouldn't have wanted to take the Mammoth Motorhome in there, but it would be a wonderful place to Boondock. If only if we had some big batteries to run the electricity all night. I'd be okay turning on a generator for a few hours in the daytime, but there's no way I would subject the poor tent campers to the racket and smell of a diesel engine.

After a few stops at scenic overlooks and stuff, we returned to shut the dogs up for their afternoon nap while we went to the visitor center and the lodge store. The exhibits weren't very good, and the only tee shirts that I liked were way overpriced and 40% polyester. I prefer all cotton. Ed didn't like the designs on most of them, and the one with the best design was only available in a hideous shade of blue, so no go. We decided to go over to Wall next day, where we could fill up the Jeep with gas and check out a few gift shops.

The informative plaque at the visitor center explained the status of the black-footed ferret. I already knew it was rare and endangered, but I'd forgotten that it was considered extinct for a while. When it was finally rediscovered, in a Prairie Dog Town in Wyoming, canine distemper was killing them off at an alarming rate. Eventually the decision was made to trap all 17 remaining individuals and start a captive breeding program.

This was successful, and soon they were re-introduced into the Conata Basin Prairie Dog town in South Dakota. (And, I assume, other places) there they reproduced to a point where they became self-sustaining.

Reading all this, we decided to go out next morning and find this Conata Basin dog town to see if we might catch sight of a ferret. Later, we decided to go in the evening, just after sundown.  (Mornings are hard for us old folk)

So that's what we did. After a fairly long walk for Molly--about an hour--and supper and showers, we went out to drive again.  Not knowing exactly where it was, we drove to the Conata Basin overlook. Nope--too high up in the air. It might have overlooked the town, but we were so high up we couldn't even guess where it might be.  So we went on and soon found a Conata Road that led us south, out of the park. Just as we were about to exit the park--no gate or anything--we saw a dog town off to the right.
 
It was surrounded by a high fence, one with square cross hatching. Although it appeared to be outside of the park boundary, I wouldn't be surprised to find that it's protected that way against human intrusion. Possibly the fence is stout enough to keep coyote out, too. But I'd be surprised, unless it's dug down into the ground a ways, too. Coyote can dig.

Way off in the distance, I caught this picture of a Burrowing Owl overlooking a prairie dog at work--
The Burrowing Owl didn't have any trouble with the fence. Since we soon realized our chances of seeing a ferret were slim to almost none--I remembered from my reading that they stay underground a great deal. But a little bit more watch

 

ing turned up an oddly big-headed bird atop a pole. Wow! Another one!

On both the way out and the way back we saw bighorn sheep. Not just the little goat-like females from earlier, but all the big curling horns you expect from the pictures you've seen.  A couple of males were even sparring a little, perched out on a rock ledge and bumping heads as if to show off for the onlookers.

 

Mammoth in the Bad Lands Day 7

 Sunday 6/26

...and a still earlier day next day. We seem to be moving our internal clocks backward as well as our physical ones. Ed got up at 5:30 and I followed suit at 6:15 or so. We were on the road by 9-ish, which is way earlier than usual. Since we had a full-hookup site, we were able to dump in place, and since we had a long pull-through, we could connect the Jeep the night before. And we did. So all we had to do was go.

And go. It was supposed to be a 3-hour drive. We filled up at a Pump&Pantry in town, and that was pretty fast. But while we were heading over to our route, I noticed that the road chosen by Google Maps for our quickest route was called "Allen Road". Not a numbered highway.

I've learned from motorhome history that any road without a number is probably a local route to people's homes and NOT a place I want the motorhome to be. I wanted to take a numbered, Nebraska State Highway. A U.S. Highway would be better, but the nearest U.S. Highway was a full hour out of our way.

So we bypassed the Allen Road and went onto Nebraska SH something-or-other. As soon as we pulled onto it, it became a gravel road and soon a sign warned us about "broken pavement". Luckily, the section of broken-up gravel was big and wide and allowed us to make a hasty U-turn. And that was that.

We went on to the next numbered road, another Nebraska State Highway. and it was okay. Also 15 or so minutes out of our way. I sat on the edge of my seat all the way up to South Dakota, worried that the pavement would end and we'd be going back again. But it was a real road and we made it to Interior, South Dakota and the Cedar Pass campground at Badlands National park.

When we went through the entry gate, the NPS worker said nothing about us needing any kind of pass nor a tag for our tow vehicle. So we assumed that the park was wide-open and didn't require an entry fee. Which, we learned next day, is true--so long as you come in the south gate. We could have driven all over the park, in and out and upside-down, without paying a fee. (Until next day, when we accidentally exited the park at the north entrance and couldn't get back in without paying. Luckily my Senior Lifetime Access pass, aka old persons' pass, did the trick)

If I do a write up on the campground I should mention that.

 

Summary: It's all about the location, and this has it.
Fairly large campground in two loops; surface was fresh asphalt that was still a little sticky.  The sites were not nearly as "tight" as people suggested, and our 32-foot Class A motorhome and tow vehicle fit our site fairly well. We might have spilled over into the next site just a  little--there weren't any markings to tell where one site ended and the next began. The sites are just curved spaces on the sides of the drive through the campground, but nicely done. I didn't see any overflow parking, so I'd hesitate to bring one of those big 45-footers with toad. I did see a few big fifth wheels.
I'd expected it to be old and run-down from people's descriptions, but it was very nice. Little, covered half-roof structures over the picnic tables. Only about 1/4 of the campsites had electric hookups (it tells on the reservations page). Ours had 50/30/20-amp electric.  No water or sewer, but there was a new, easy to access potable water hookup at the dumpstation. The water spigot had a nice, threaded end, but had a reducer that slowed us filling up our tank.  The dump station was on the same driveway as the water fillup, so if there's a line of RVs there for water OR sewer you'll have to wait. We arrived at 2pm on a Sunday and only had to wait behind one trailer, just a  few minutes.
The campground was almost completely full every night and there were a LOT of people, families and kids--but that is to be expected at the time of year (early June). It was a little noisy until dark and then it got very quiet. There weren't all that many people who strung up lights or left their outdoor lights on after dark.
The grass all in and around the campground was mowed very short, which made it a little dusty and dry with a few thorns here and there, but not bad.  Not a lot of people had their dogs, so we were able to walk ours without any altercations.
The bathroom had a big outdoors sink. Also a recycling trailer, but it was completely full when we tried to put our aluminum cans in it.
One bit of advice--if you come into the park from the south, you don't have to pay for entry. But if you then exit out the north or west exits and try to re-enter, you'll need to pay. I suspect the south entrance was on the honor system, but no one ever mentioned it.

Mammoth in the Bad Lands Day 6

 Saturday 6/25

I'd planned to spend a second day at Chimney Rock because there was so much to see in the area. And there was--first we went in search of a wildlife preserve, which we found but there wasn't much to look at. Then we took a quick jaunt to the Wildcat Hills State Recreation area Area; then to Scott's Bluff; then back to the Wildcat Hills place because they had such an awesome bird blind. 

 

 

Turkey babies

 

 

 

 I saw several Red Crossbill--a LIFER!

Female (yellow)

 

 

Male

 

Pine Siskin, Turkey and chicks, House Finch----

 

Bluejay, Goldfinch, Spotted Towhee, Chickadee, Nuthatches--could it have been Pygmy Nuthatch? They definitely had white breasts and they weren't making the usual White-Breasted Nuthatch's call.  
LATER: YES! I looked at the photos I took, and they HAD to be Pygmy Nuthatch. And I double-checked the sighting on ebird. Another lifer for me!

Nature trail where the nuthatches were:

I was disappointed at Scott's Bluff. It wasn't the view that was lacking--that was superbly magnificent--but the pioneer inscriptions. Little did I realize that those old-timey people had scrawled their initials into crumbling sandstone that was weathering faster that the wagons could crawl. There was nothing left to see, except the rock. Cool rock though...what's left of it.

According to the placard, this steel post was even with the rock in 1933

After having spent so much time in the Canyon museum, I double-checked the museum that I'd marked on my "places to go" list. People spoke mostly of farm implements and early settler's artifacts, and we've seen so much of that kind of thing so many times before, it didn't seem worth the time or the admission price. So we skipped the museum, took the dogs back for their afternoon nap, and returned to see the *free* visitor center's film and their little exhibits. Not bad, and certainly worth the price of admission.

View from Scott's Bluff

No memory of the rest of the day, except that a cold front was pushing its way through making for a glorious sunset. I took Molly for a jog down to the Pioneer Crossing official museum (which was closed because it was after 5pm). We went on for a little under two miles, but then I got too chilly to stay outside and enjoy the celestial scenery for long.  It was an early night.

Mammoth in the Bad Lands, Day 5

 Friday 6/24

Next stop, Chimney Rock Pioneer Crossing RV park.  But there were a lot of stops before there. First there was the dump station. A nice big one, but no threaded hose to let us clean out the tank.  So that didn't take too long.

On to the gas stop, in town. Then we headed north on a crappy Colorado state highway and it stunk to high heavens. Not the smell, but the road surface and the size of it. The drive through the plains of eastern Colorado was beautiful--fields of wheat and newly planted corn. Lots of unused ground, full of glorious nothing. Pronghorn. I saw them about three times, twice in small bunches way off the road but never in time to warn Ed so he could see them. Then I saw a small group right beside the road--marvelous--and gone.

Finally, halfway through the drive, I saw a lone pronghorn in time to share it with Ed. And he saw it.

The ground started off really flat, almost like the Llano Estacado of Texas. Really, really treeless. But soon it became rolling grasslands, never exactly flat but never quite level, either.  That went on a long time.

But all the while we seemed to be gradually going up. The uphills were longer than the downhills, and there were more of them. eventually, after hours of boring driving, we were in "interesting" country.

 

 

Before that, however, we had to content with traffic and very few good passing zones. One truck in particular, with a Texas license plate, came up and passed us while we were slowed down for an uphill and some curves. And then we followed him, stuck, for a long time. The speed limit was 65, and we didn't care to exceed it all that much, but most of the time we were going less than that. Which was not at all necessary.

And then did I mention the one-lane road, with a flagman and a ten-minute delay while we were sitting in a line of cars?

 

So the drive wasn't great, but the ending was just fine. Chimney Rock Pioneer--oh, just call it CRPCRVP--is just a cleared spot in a hayfield. But it has 50-amp electricity, water, sewer, nice level pull-through graveled spots with grass in between them, and plenty of room for dog walking all around.  Plus, a view--

 

For a private RV park, it was way better than adequate. We were due to spend two nights there and could have happily spent more. There's no hiking nearby but there are two wildlife management areas within a 15-minute drive. But more on that later.

REVIEW
Chimney Rock Pioneer Crossing  
All sites were pull-through with 30- and 50-amp electric, water and sewer. There were three rows of side-by-side sites, but they're angled so that everyone has a view of Chimney Rock and the really big hill behind it.   Each site is separated from its neighbor by a grassy area with a picnic table. So, yeah--you're packed in like sardines, but no--it's not obnoxious for a private RV park.  The second best I've ever stayed at that's owned by an individual person. Awfully expensive--$94 after the online reservation fees. You might want to check if you can call the park directly and skip the "Rover Pass" overhead.

Plenty of room for walking dogs around in the hayfield that surrounds it, and for bigger dogs you can walk along the road, which is very lightly traveled. In a 45-minute walk, I saw maybe 10 cars.

You can hear highway noise when the wind is right, but it's not obnoxious. And a train runs nearby but in the two nights that we spent there, we didn't feel like it was running right through the park. Just a pleasant rumble in the distance.

Extremely clean and well-kept up. The lady manning the "trading post"/registration desk was very nice and efficient. The only shortcoming in that regard is that she closes up at 5pm--if you're going to arrive later than that, you'll need to make arrangements via email or phone in advance. The gate is left open and there's no fence, but it's so far out in the country that we didn't feel worried at all about leaving our stuff behind while we went driving around.