This is probably the most remote location in which we’ve camped. We had to fill our water tank before we came, there is nowhere to fill a tank in or near the park. We got gas at Cadillac, a tiny town 50 miles north of the campground. We checked in at the visitor center in Val Marie and then drove about five miles on a bumpy secondary highway and another fifteen miles on a gravel road to the campground.
There were 20 campsites and they did have electricity, they even had 50 amp service. There were vault toilets (modern outhouses) and that’s about it.
Our rig was the largest we saw, by far, and with our satellite TV antenna I’m sure we looked out of place. We were there two days, the first day the wind blew steady at close to 30 mph all afternoon with much stronger gusts and the temperature reached 100 degrees. The second day it was overcast, very windy again, and it never got above 64. This morning, before we left, it was still, but only 30 degrees. I was glad for our large, comfortable trailer.
This is prairie, but it is dry grassland, and there are cacti…
and sagebrush. This is the northern limit for prairie rattlesnakes, which we did not see and the black-tailed prairie dog. We saw hundreds of those, but they are so quick I never got a picture. We drove by several prairie dog towns. Matey avidly watched out the truck window. We couldn’t let him out, prairie dogs carry bubonic plague and their fleas can transfer the plague to humans. The fleas will hitch a ride on dogs, if dogs are allowed near the towns, so we stayed in the truck and Matey just got to watch.
On the hot day we drove the “backcountry loop”. It was beautiful, but stark.
We did see animals; coyotes, bison, antelope, mule deer, prairie dogs and ground squirrels and lots of birds, including two smaller types of raptors (trying to ID those) and a bald eagle. My iPhone isn’t good with animal pictures and none of these were close enough or still enough to get a good shot, so no pictures.
On the cool day we took a short hike. We started on the 70 Mile Butte trail, but it was only about 50, then, the wind was whipping, and it stared spitting rain.
It was a nice trail, but we decided it was not the day for it.
Instead we did the Riverwalk. The wind was not so intense there and the rain never really came.
Our truck is the white dot in the trees. That’s the trailhead. All the land was as open and empty as this. A great place to get away from human sights and sounds.
Matey liked this campground, because even if it was too hot or too cold for me to sit out with him, he could still sit inside and watch the ground squirrels.
And I enjoyed the vastness and solitude.
On the Roam Again 