ELY!

The coolest small town in America

Ely is one of our favorite places. It claims to be the coolest small town in America, and it's true. It's a canoe town. If you drive into town without a canoe on top of your car, they ask you how far back it blew off, and offer to help you find it.

Certainly a canoe town

We arrived in Ely about 4:00 on Wednesday and set up camp at Fall Lake Campground, a unit of the Superior National Forest. It's a fantastic campground and a great staging place and jumping off point for entering the Boundary Waters. They have a huge paved parking area with street lights where we can park long-term when we put into the wilderness. It's the only place up here I feel good about leaving the motor home for our two-week stay in the Boundary Waters. Even if we are not putting in near Ely, we will come here and leave the coach.

 


As we drove into the campground we spotted a coyote on the road. When we saw him he was actually pooping in the center of the road. I think this posture slowed him down a bit, so we were able to get a camera out and get a photo from the coach. After getting parked in site #13 we had another wildlife encounter, as it were. I found a dead baby mouse on the floor in the coach. That's never good. Since then we have found three more dead babies. Where's mama? I hope she's abandoned ship.

Not good!!!

We met our friends Wayne and Lynda here. On Friday we did a day paddle on Hegman Lake. It is fairly easy to get to from here and has some nice Indian pictographs. It rained a bit on that paddle. I hope that's not a sign of things to come. Also, all the campsites on the lake were filled. Maybe that's to be expected on an easy entry lake.

Check out the two loons.  I mean the two birds behind Wayne and Lynda!

Indian Pictographs

 



We spent much of our 4 nights here repacking and reorganizing our gear. Today we picked up our permit, bought a fishing license and bought last minute perishables . We will put into the wilderness tomorrow at Mudro Lake for 14 days. During that time we will have no cellular service and no internet, so we will be incommunicado. The 10-day forecast looks pretty good: little chance of rain, light winds, highs near 70 and lows near 50. Not bad.

Bon Voyage!

Zooming Across North Dakota and Into Minnesota

We left Theodore Roosevelt National Park on Saturday knowing we had some miles to make, but no particular stops along the way. We had a service appointment in Elk River MN, just north of Minneapolis on Monday, but planned to arrive there on Sunday evening. The drive across North Dakota was unremarkable and uneventful. We saw lots a hay fields and sunflower farms.   Except we did see the biggest cow and the biggest bison I have ever seen.  Must be good hay.

 

 

We made about 350 miles and spent the night in the Sam's Club in Fargo. There we bought groceries and topped off the tank with diesel. When we woke up on Sunday there was a motor home that had parked beside us that had three Australian shepherds on-board. When I first saw them, two were sitting in the cockpit seats, and the 10-week old puppy was laying on the dash board. Pretty cute. I was excited about being in Fargo because I love the movie “Fargo”. I figured we would visit some locations where scenes were filmed. Well, a little research revealed that not a single scene, neither interior nor exterior, was filmed in Fargo. Bummer!

Aussies on board

We left Fargo and drove only about 210 miles before arriving at our destination in Elk River. MN We parked the motor home, at Precision Frame & Alignment. Dick Lornston, the owner, is a friend we have been visiting for about 5 years. Each year we stop at his shop for lubrication, alignment and any other necessary frame and suspension work. Dick specializes in motor homes and is truly an expert in motor home handling issues. His shop has 4 electrical hook-ups for folks waiting for service; we usually arrive the day before our appointment and stay until the day after. This time, in addition to the coach work, he checked and adjusted the alignment on all four wheels on the Element and rotated and re-balanced the tires. Every time we have been there, we have left with noticeable improvements in handling. On the coach he did lubrication, alignment and adjusted the ride height.

 

Dick was born and raised in northern Minnesota, up on the north shore. A few years ago he came to Winston-Salem for a rally, and we entertained him and introduced him to Lexington style barbecue and sweet tea. It was a real culture shock. On this trip we cooked him country ham biscuits and grits. I think he liked them.



On Tuesday we left Elk River for a 3-hour drive to Duluth. We had a 1-night reservation at Lakehead Boat Basin. Lakehead is a marina in Duluth harbor. In the winter they haul boats out and set them up on the hard before the lake freezes. In the summer they use that space for about 30 RV spaces. It has a beautiful view of the harbor and the Duluth waterfront. When an ore boat comes in, we can watch it pass under the aerial lift bridge and sail by the marina. We walked up the Lake Walk to Fitgers, a shopping mall in an old historic brewery building and ate dinner on a high balcony overlooking Lake Superior.

Duluth aerial lift bridge

View from Lakehead Boat Basin

Duluth aerial lift bridge

Theodore Roosevelt National Park BULLY!

 


Teddy Roosevelt created many of our national parks. He protected more public lands than any other president, either before or since. However, he did not create his namesake park. Theodore Roosevelt National Park was created well after his death and was created in his honor. It is the only US national Park that is named for a person.

"Badlands"

Roosevelt first came to the “Little Mo” area of North Dakota for a bison hunting trip in 1883. The bison were almost extinct by that time, and it took him 10 days to find and kill a bison. But he fell in love with the area. He invested in a ranch near Medora, the Maltese Cross Ranch. When his mother and his wife, died on the same day in 1884, he returned to the area to grieve and heal and established his own ranch, the Elkhorn Ranch, 35 miles north of Medora. It was on the ranch that he lived “the strenuous life”, learned a hard work ethic, and it led to his interest in conservation policy. He said often that if it were not for his years in North Dakota he never would have become president.

Interior of Roosevelt's Maltese Cross cabin

The park is made up of three separate units. The South Unit is in Medora and right off I-94. The Elkhorn Unit, the site of his Elkhorn Ranch is about 35 miles north of the South Unit and is very remote. The North unit is about 80 miles north of the South Unit. The Little Missouri River flows through all three units before it joins the Missouri River.

Little Missouri River

Petrified logs

Petrified bench

We spent 2 nights in the South Unit and two nights in the North Unit at the federal campgrounds. Both units are characterized by grassland plains and eroded “badlands”. The North unit is perhaps a little more rugged than the South Unit and much quieter. Because of its relatively remote location, perhaps only about 75% of visitors go to the North Unit. Bison, elk, deer, prairie dogs and feral horses are found in the park. The park is enclosed in a 7' fence to keep the bison and horses in and domestic animals out.

Feral horses

"What are you looking at?

"Cannonball concretions"

Medora ND is an interesting town. It is a western style tourist town with a population of 112 people. However, the Chamber of Commerce lists 20 cafes and restaurants and 7 saloons. Somebody is doing a lot of eating and drinking in Medora.

Prairie dog town

I would say this is one lucky prairie dog.  I was hoping to see some carnage!

Little Missouri River: a little low for paddling

Tracing the Yellowstone through Montana

We left Yellowstone and Mammoth CG headed north and east along the Yellowstone River through Montana. We stopped at Chico Hot Springs after about an hour on the road. Chico Hot Springs Resort is a historic resort featuring a natural hot spring pool. Water is funneled into a small swimming pool. From there it empties into a larger pool where cold water is mixed as well. The temperature in the first pool was just barely tolerable, the second pool is more like a typical heated pool, perhaps 90 degrees. We spent an hour or so flipping from one pool to the other and then dried off and head back down the road.

Chico Hot Springs

Our next stop was in Livingston MT. Dorcas wanted to stop at a bead shop there, and we shopped at the Radio Shack to buy a replacement connector for Dorcas' PC. There was an inviting pizza shop, Earth's Crust Pizza, in the strip mall behind the Radio Shack, so we checked it out. We were less than impressed by the buffet which was in an unlighted corner. I couldn't see what was there. There was an item on the menu board that we did not recognize, so we asked what it was. The server didn't know; not a good sign, so we left. The most exciting thing about Livingston was trying to get out of town. We had come into town on I-90 Business from the west, and thought we would continue on I-90B eastbound to return to I-90. It was not to be. We saw a big sign declaring “ROAD CLOSED” and were forced to a side street to the left. Instead of a series of detour signs, the road looped back to the west, with no instruction for the confused traveler. The detour had put us on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, and there was no way to get back to the highway. Still no “DETOUR” signs in sight. We finally wound our way through the suburbs and negotiated a railroad underpass (with whole inches to spare overhead!) and found our way back to I-90B. Unfortunately, the intersection was a very sharp angle, and we could not turn west to get back out of town the way we had come in, so we had to turn east, back toward the unfortunate detour. Then we made a series of UPS turns (right turns) and finally backtracked to I-90 on the west end of town. I don't see any point in ever going back to Livingston.

The mighty free-flowing Yellowstone

A view of the Yellowstone

Once safely back on the road we continued east down the Yellowstone River valley. We stopped in Billings at the Sam's store and bought groceries and fuel. We spent the night at the Walmart in Miles City MT after a 330 mile day.

Yellowstone Wildlife

Yellowstone is famous for its wildlife ... well, and also for its thermal features ... and for its waterfalls.  Well, its famous for a lot of things, but one is its wildlife.  We have seen a lot of interesting critters during our 2 1/2 weeks in the park.  We even got a few nice photos of some.  Unfortunately, while we saw some black bears, we didn't see a grizzly.  And we never saw a wolf.

So here is a post showing off some of my favorite wildlife photos.

Enjoy.

A bison jam

Black bear

Bull elk taken from our coach at Mammoth CG

Black bear cub on the boardwalk

Uinta (ground squirrel).  This was Matilda's favorite wildlife.

"You can't see me!"

"Dorcas! Keep your eyes on the road!"

These guys posed perfectly

Shedding his winter coat

I think I violated Rule #5 in previous post!

Taken from our coach at Bridge Bay CG

Black bear says "Hello"

Black bear says "Yum!" as he munches the clover.

Black bear says "Bye bye"

Coyote on the prowl

Apparently he's not in the mood for swans this morning

"I see you too!"

The ground squirrel got away.  Dang!

Elk hanging out at Mammoth Hot Springs

Look carefully, there is a bull moose hiding in the shadows.

Mule deer

White pelicans

Osprey on her nest

Trumpeter Swans

"If you don't back off, I'm calling the ranger!"