Foothills Christmas Light Parade

One thing that is very cool for Christmas in this part of Yuma is the parades.  We had a parade that came right through our park.  People put lights on their jeeps and large 4wheelers and drove through the area going through each RV park.  They must have hooked the lights up to their batteries somehow.  They were very creatively decorated and it looked like the folks in the vehicles were having a blast.  We also had groups of Christmas carolers come around the park spreading Christmas cheer. 

Its been fun to enjoy Christmas in a busy area for a change.  The last several years we've been out in the boondocks -- a very small town in Texas and the wildlife refuge north of Yuma -- where nothing much happened for Christmas.   Our park had a Christmas lights decorating contest.  Four sites won the contest but there were so many great decorations it was hard to pick four.  Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Learning to Drywash for Gold

We met an old gold miner here in Yuma that makes his money by teaching folks how to prospect and gold pan.   His name is Old Stony and he was quite a character.  We decided to take him up on his proposal to teach us how to run a dry washer to find gold.   He took us a little north of Yuma onto some BLM land (public land) where you can prospect for gold.   He showed us where some tailings (old diggings) from an old mine were and showed us how to set up a dry washer by them.  The picture shows the dry washer on top of the pile of dirt that we ran through it.  The motor sat on top of a bucket with a hose running to the dry washer.  The hose blows air through the dry washer and also makes the whole thing vibrate.  The air and vibration push the dirt that you shovel into it down over the riffles -- kind of like a washboard -- and the gold catches in the riffles.   We shoveled dirt into the machine for about a half an hour.  You can see the gold in the pan that we found.  A little bit but it was sure pretty.

Old Stony also went over some pointers on using metal detectors the proper way so that you don't get tired out using it.   He also explained about other metals that you can find and are worth more than gold -- especially meteorites.--   Another find that he told us about is called a fulgerite.  Its where lightening has struck the ground where its sandy and turned the sand into glass.  You have to dig down carefully and what you will find is a formation of obsidian (black glass) that has limbs like a tree.  Some fulgerites that have many limbs and look more tree like can be worth thousands of dollars.    We learned a lot and had a lot of fun and would recommend Old Stony as a good teacher. 

The Potholes

This is a view taken from an area called the Potholes.  It's on the California side of the Colorado River.  The Colorado River is the little bit of blue water in the distance.   Castle Dome is the mountain peak way in the distance.  The Potholes is an area of Bureau of Land Management land that is supposed to be good for finding gold.  You need a dry washer to find gold in the desert.  It works by blowing and vibrating the dirt down over some riffles (looks like an old fashioned wash board) and the gold because its heavy settles in the riffles.   We went to check out the area and we saw lots of evidence of digging and dry washing activity.

There are You Tube videos of guys digging dirt and running it through their various kinds of dry washers in this area.  One group of guys said that they ran 20 - five gallon buckets of dirt and found about a $100 worth of gold.  That's a lot of dirt moving but that's what it takes.

Fall Colors

There is a little fall color in the salt cedar trees -- the yellow/orange color in front of the mountain.   This is the only fall color you see in the desert.  Even our first winter in New Mexico -- the only fall colors we saw were the same kind of salt cedar trees.  The only other fall colors we saw this year was in Utah up at 8000 feet of elevation.  We have a lot of mesquite trees and ironwood trees like this one in the picture in the Yuma area.  They are always green or shed their leaves and never turn any colors. 

Many people in the park are decorating their yards, palm trees and RVs so its starting to look like Christmas.  It took a few years but now I can get in the Christmas spirit looking at decorated palm trees instead of snow covered houses with Christmas lights.   I especially like walking around in the evening looking at all the lights while still wearing shorts.  

Yuma is very nice in the winter but it does have a few downsides.  The water out of the tap is too salty to drink so we have to buy drinking water and water for coffee.  They have water stations all over town where you can fill gallon jugs with reverse osmosis filtered water.  The cost is cheap .50 cents for 5 gallons.  Our park like most parks in Yuma have a water station right in the park for convenience which is nice.   The traffic will continue to get worse through the peak time of January and February when everyone who can comes down.  The stores will also have a hard time keeping the shelves stocked as demand increases so much they just can't keep up.  Oh well - its worth it for the weather.

Winter in Yuma

Sorry I can't download/upload any pictures this week on this post.   We are settled in for the winter here in Yuma, Az.  The weather has been very nice.  Staying in the 70's with only the need to wear pants early in the morning.  It might rain a few drops this week but probably not although sometimes its nice to have the dust washed out of the air. 




The water in Yuma, like many places we travel, is very hard so we bought a small portable water softener.  You just add table salt to it and so far its been working great to soften the water.  Its supposed to save the plumbing in your rig by keeping the pipes from getting corroded and clogged with hard water deposits. 


We are expecting a big influx of winter snowbirds coming down this week.  Many people wait until after Thanksgiving to come south.  The traffic on the roads and in the stores has been steadily increasing and it gets a little scary around here with all the seniors driving that probably shouldn't be anymore. 

Cargo Muchacho Mountains

We went over to the California side of the Colorado River for a hike.  Yuma is right on the Arizona - California border with the Colorado River as the divide.  The mountain range closest to Yuma on the California is the Cargo Muchachos.  This mountain range had lots of gold, silver and kyanite mines in it.  There are still some active claims although much smaller than back in the days of large operations.  So there is plenty of federal land that is available for recreation.  We've heard of guys who go out here with their metal detectors and find lots of small pieces of gold.  We took our metal detector out there and did quite a bit of hiking around but didn't find anything worthwhile.

Its very nice to be able to go for a hike and its in the 70's.  When we got here in October it was in the high 90's and now its staying in the 70's.  I wish we would have had a longer stretch of 80 degrees but its still better than what most of the country is experiencing.  We've had two windy days so far which is a far cry from last winter in Texas where it was windy everyday. 

Our Winter Home

I can't seem to load pictures this time.  Not sure what the problem is.  We came to Yuma to work at a brand new park called Carefree Village.  They had us park for free at Las Quintas Oasis Rv Resort  another park that has the same owners.  While we were sitting here waiting to move over the managers here at Las Quintas were desperate for help so they asked us if we would be willing to stay and work here instead of moving to the new park.  We agreed because it didn't really matter to us which park we would be working. 


The new park is away from the freeway (less noise) and being brand new the maintenance wouldn't be fixing water leaks, taking care of weeds, etc.  The park we are working in is older but very nice  but there are water leaks and weeds to pull (all with thorns, stickers, pricklies) so Jim is very busy.  I'm working in the office which isn't very busy yet.   It is also next to the freeway like most of the parks in Yuma.  We do like it here and there's plenty of activities if you want to join in the fun.  The new park is going to have some growing pains so at least we will miss that and who knows maybe next year we will work there. 

North Star Mining Area

We joined the local rock club here in Yuma and went out in the KOFA wilderness on an outing with them.  This was the same area that Jim used to go out to when we volunteered at the wildlife refuge.   So most of what we saw Jim had already seen.  The top picture is of an arrastra.  This is where the rocks from the mine were ground by the two large stones you see inside the circle.   Mules were used to pull the stones around the circle so the rock could be crushed to help get the gold out.   

The second picture is of the Polaris mine.  It was called the Polaris mine because the point of rock at the top of the hill pointed to the North Star.   You can see the tailing pile from the mine in the middle of the picture where the pile of lighter colored rock sits.  The white building on the left is where the caretaker for the mine used to live.  Jim was out there with the maintenance supervisor from the refuge two years ago and they were looking at what it would take to redo the building to preserve it.  When we saw it this time it looked like nothing had been done to it yet.  I went into one mine shaft -- just stepped inside -- after many other people checked it out and it was full of core samples from the mine.  They would drill out pieces of rock and test them for gold content.  We assumed since there wasn't mining still going on that the test samples proved to be too poor. 

Enjoying Yuma

You can't beat the weather in Yuma.  Its been in the 90's but if you are in the shade its very nice and there hasn't been any wind.  Last year in Texas it was humid -- making it hotter- and always windy.  We spent some time with friends that we had met working at the refuge two winters ago.  We went for a ride with them out on some Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in California just on the other side of the Colorado River.  We walked through a dry wash (gully) and we dug some dirt that we took back to process and look for gold.  The washes had lots of water running through them during the monsoon season this past August/September.  So its fun to walk them afterwards and see what's washed out of the mountains.

We found four specks of gold two of which you didn't need a magnifier to see out of three gallons worth of dirt.   Ooooooh.   In the picture Jim is checking the gold pan for a speck of gold while our friend watches him.  Our friends are renting an RV lot in Yuma for a lot less a month than it costs to stay in one of the RV parks.  Of course you don't have all of the park amenities like a pool and activities but there are lots of activities at the senior center in town to take advantage of if you want.  
Their lot had a beautiful flowering bush and a grapefruit tree. 

Mexican Art

We spent some time in Quartzsite, Az and then decided we needed to get a few things done before the snowbirds all hit Yuma so we moved to Yuma.  The new resort we will be working at isn't ready to open yet so the owners had us park at Las Quintas Resort in Yuma for free until we can move to the new park.  Its very nice where we are -- the resort has a pool, hot tub, shuffleboard, bocci ball, volleyball, an exercise room and a rec hall with a laundry, library and pool tables.  So we should be able to keep busy playing while we wait. 

We went to Algodones, Mexico -- you just walk in from an Indian casino parking lot in the U.S. -- and we brought a piece of wood and an old gold pan to have painted.  If you have never seen spray paint art that the Mexicans do you should put it on your list of must sees.  It is amazing -- the artist that did our sign and the scene on the pan just used spray cans of paint and a scrunched up plastic bag as a brush.   He did have some cardboard cutouts for the animals to use as a guide otherwise it was all free hand.  We wish we could think of something else to have painted.  We've seen people bring all kinds of things across the border to have painted.  

Its been in the high 90's here in Yuma but its supposed to cool down to the high 80's starting this week which would be a little nicer for relaxing outside. 

Monument Valley Scenic Byway

 

The road to Monument Valley was a beautiful drive.  We stopped many times to take pictures because the scenery everywhere you looked was so gorgeous.  The owner of the campground we stayed at in Bluff, UT told us to drive to Goosenecks State Park.   We took pictures of one of the "goosenecks" of the Colorado River.  She had a picture of all three goosenecks on the wall of the campground office.  We decided the only way to get that picture was from a plane. 

 

After we left the Monument Valley area we headed south into Arizona.  We stayed at an RV resort in Camp Verde, AZ which is less than 100 miles south of Flagstaff.  The resort was owned by the Indian tribe that also owned a casino close by.  The resort had top ratings and we had to admit it was a very nice park.   We went from Camp Verde down toward Phoenix and then cut over west to an RV resort in Wickenburg.  We got as close to Phoenix as we ever want to be -- the traffic is terrible.    After visiting some friends in Sun City West and up in Prescott we headed farther west to Quartzsite.  We are parked here until the first part of November.  The new park that we are working at this winter is still under construction and we've been told they are two weeks behind schedule.  So we will have an extra two weeks of vacation before we start working again. 

 

 

Monument Valley

We traveled south from Arches and Canyonlands and found a nice quiet campground close to the Monument Valley Scenic Byway.  It was great to park the RV and just drive the truck on the scenic byway.  Most people take their RV's on the byway and then park at a campground right in Monument Valley.  We were glad we didn't.  We got to stop and take lots of pictures along the byway -- couldn't have done that with the RV and boat in tow.  We checked out the campground in the heart of Monument Valley and we would never have fit.  Its also expensive and you don't really get a view so we were glad we stayed a little north of there and paid half the price for a much nicer campsite. 

We checked out the different tours available through the Monument Valley Park itself.  It is on Navajo land and you need to pay to go in and the road they allow cars on is really meant for 4wheel drive vehicles.  We opted to take a tour with an Indian guide.  It was well worth the price -- we had our own private tour - just the two of us - and it only cost ten dollars more than other people were paying for a group tour.  We spent 3 hours going to almost two dozen sites and learning about the Navajo culture and the names of the beautiful land formations.  We felt like we were in a John Wayne movie.    

Arches & Canyonlands

Once we left Vernal we headed down to Moab.  We followed highway 191 down through Utah and it was an "exciting" ride.  Narrow roads that wound up and down through the mountains with lots of truck traffic and no shoulders.  The road was pretty rough in places which just added to the "fun".  Moab was very busy with lots of tourists from all over the country plus local weekenders enjoying some 4wheeling.  We drove through both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.  They are both very beautiful and very different even though they are fairly close together.  Most of the famous arches are back off of hiking trails.  We didn't do much hiking because it had rained and the ground was that soupy, sticky, slippery mud.  Canyonlands reminded us of the Grand Canyon only smaller. 

Since Moab is in the middle of nowhere off of I-70 we found it kind of expensive -- they take advantage of their location close to the national parks and charge accordingly.   I did get a new grocery discount card that I can use in a lot of areas of the country since it is good at Kroger stores.  I now have quite a collection of grocery discount cards.

It was fairly warm in Moab but the rain did change to snow on the tops of the mountains that run between Utah and Colorado down there.  It was a very pretty sight from a nice long distance away.  

Dinosaur Bones

We ended up being in Wyoming -- Glendo and then Rawlins for 4 days waiting for rain to let up.  While we were in Rawlins we took a drive and saw the Devil's Gate.  Its where the Oregon, Mormon and California wagon trails come together.  The Devil's Gate was just a rock formation that could be seen for miles and was a good landmark.  We then drove down past the Flaming Gorge to the dam and across it and then up, up and up to 8500 ft as we traveled to Vernal, UT.  We saw some beautiful fall colors up that high but then we had to travel down hill to Vernal.  The road had 10 switchbacks over several miles with an 8% grade -- downhill.  We are not only pulling the 5th wheel but also have the boat hooked on behind the 5th wheel so we were glad that the truck has exhaust brakes, the 5th wheel has hydraulic brakes and the boat has electric brakes to slow us down. 

We got to Vernal and stayed there several days so we could enjoy Dinosaur National Monument.  The Utah side of the monument has a quarry site that is open to visitors.  There they have preserved a wall of dinosaur bones just as they were discovered.  They think the dinosaurs gathered by the last water during a drought and got caught in a flash flood and were covered in the mud and died.   There were 10 different kinds of dinosaurs preserved in the wall of mud.    We also checked out the Dinosaur Museum in Vernal where they had several dinosaurs on display that were found in the area including the stegosaurus in the photo.

We are now in Moab, UT enjoying Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. 

Custer State Park

We spent 6 days in the Black Hills area.   The wildlife loop in Custer State Park is still our favorite drive in the Black Hills.   They were getting ready to do the buffalo roundup so the buffalo were being encouraged to herd up down by the corrals.  It was neat to see hundreds of buffalo in one large area.  We got pictures of them rolling in the dust giving themselves dust baths and lots of pictures of them on the move.  I'm not sure why I could only get one picture to load this time.

We spent the first two days in Spearfish, SD and drove through Spearfish canyon.  We found a few tiny patches of snow that hadn't melted from the 7 inch snowfall they had before we got there.   We moved to a campground south of Rapid City for the rest of our stay.  We drove every road and saw just about every kind of wildlife you can see.  Buffalo, wild donkeys, wild turkeys, fox, elk, prairie dogs, big horn sheep and pronghorn antelope. 

We left South Dakota and headed to Wyoming.  We spent one night in Glendo by the Glendo reservoir.  Guys were cleaning some nice walleye in the RV park that they had caught in the lake.  They told us the water in the reservoir was being drawn down so that work could be done on the dam.  It normally is 50% full of water now but with the draw down it was down to 17%.  You would think that would make the fishing easier but they said it had been a little tough. 

We are now in Rawlins, WY waiting for the rain to stop in northeast Utah where we are headed to Vernal.  Can't wait to see dinosaur bones!

Teddy Roosevelt National Park

We left Indian Hills and stopped for a few days in Dickinson, ND.  We took a drive to Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  Its actually two different units, north and south.  We ended up going to see both units even though they are about 80 miles apart from one another.  Since the park is in the western part of the state you run into the oil boom traffic.  We saw lots of oil wells and lots of truck traffic servicing them.  We felt like we were back in Midland, TX.

The south unit of the park is right off of interstate 94.  Its got pretty scenery and lots of buffalo herds to see and prairie dog towns full of dogs running and squeaking.  The north unit is up closer to Williston so even closer to the oil boom.  It has great views.  The picture with the Little Missouri River running through the hills is one of the most photographed sites in North Dakota.  We were very lucky during our stay in North Dakota.  We got to see the prettiest parts of the state.

Npw we are in Spearfish, SD -- missed the snow and will head to Hermosa, SD tomorrow south of Rapid City to enjoy more of the Black Hills.

Parting Shots

We will end up staying a week longer than we planned to here at the resort.  Jim agreed to help the owner move bales of hay.  Those great big round bales  -- they use machinery -- so its not physically challenging like it used to be.  Jim was driving a little bobcat/skidsteer to move bales and the thing died when he had a bale in its clutches.  So the arms of the bobcat blocked the door.  It took him over an hour to figure out how to get out of the thing.  The emergency hatch was behind him and there isn't any room to really turn your body around inside the thing but he finally managed to get out.

I took some pictures of our campsite for the summer.  It was a very nice site -- very long so everything fit and a beautiful side yard between us and the road.  It was a very pretty place to stay for the summer but now its time to hit the road.  We plan to go through Teddy Roosevelt National Park and then spend some time in the Black Hills.  If the weather holds up we will zip through Wyoming and then down the east side of Flaming Gorge and down the east side of Utah.  We want to hit Arches and Canyonlands National Park and then Monument Valley.  Hit Flagstaff, AZ and go south from there stopping to visit friends along the way to Yuma. 

So Old and Peaceful

About 10 miles north of the resort, out in the middle of fields, is this old church and graveyard.  I went with some other ladies to check it out.  There is nothing left inside but bare walls and floors (covered in mouse/rat/ bat scat).  The view out the old windows was wonderful.  You can see all the way to the water -- more of Lake Sakakawea --   The graveyard next to the church is still in use.  There were a few fresh graves.  The graves are somewhat in rows and go back to the mid 1850's.

The gravestone in this picture is of a native called White Face who according to the grave marker was a US Army Scout.  He died in 1925.  There were many natives buried in this graveyard.  It is a very beautiful place with the Lake far in the background.  The grass grows pretty high here -- obviously no one actually tends the graveyard.  We wore boots to avoid getting bitten by a stray rattlesnake.    Always an adventure!

Paul Broste Rock Museum

We finally got to the Paul Broste Rock Museum.  It was well worth the $5 charge for the tour.  Mr. Broste built the building himself -- its concrete block with natural stone from the area on the outside face.  He made his own equipment to make all the polished spheres that are housed here.  Some of the spheres are the largest of their kind in the world.  Perfect polished clear quartz, tiger eye, rose quartz and the list goes on and on.  He collected from all over North and South Dakota and then went on to acquire rocks from all over the world.  There are also stalagtites and stalagmites from caves which are now illegal to collect. 

There was this beautiful piece of wulfenite from the Red Cloud Mine near Yuma, AZ.  We had met the caretaker of the Red Cloud Mine and we displayed a piece of wulfenite at the refuge.  This rock is amazingly valuable because of how rare it is.  The reddish orange color wulfenite is only found in two places in the world.   The museum curator had no idea that the wulfenite they had on display was valuable.  She told us that several of the rock specimens they had were worth over a million dollars and the Smithsonian had tried to get a few of them.    We looked around at this old building and thought --- they need a better security system!

Birds & Blooms

There are an incredible amount of interesting birds here.  I've seen many new ones that I have never seen before.  This bird is either a brown thrasher or a wood thrush.  I have to see some other pictures in books before I can decide which it is.  Either bird is a treat to see since we've never seen either one before we got here. 

Every time we go to town it seems like something new is blooming in the fields.    The really bright lemon yellow in the background is a field of rapeseed.  It is the plant they use to make canola oil.  Miles of these bright yellow fields are quite beautiful.  Its hard to see in this picture but in front of the yellow is a sea of blue flowers.  The blue is flax.  The fields of blue waving in the wind makes them look like a lake from a distance -- so pretty. 

Thousands/Millions of Years Ago

The land here in North Dakota was once under water and there are fossils in the rocks in the area that show fossilized sea creatures.  There is an island called fossil island -- right now its just a few rocks sticking out of the water -- but as the water goes down we should see more of it.  You can land a boat there and see the fossils in the rocks.  The fossils in the rock in the picture are from outside the Paul Broste Rock Museum.  It was closed the day we went but outside they had this really cool -- big and heavy -- fossilized rock. 

Another era in geological history here had lots of trees growing and there is a lot of petrified wood around.  It isn't brilliant colors like the petrified wood in Arizona.  The colors depend on different minerals being in the soil that are absorbed into the wood over time.  Here there must not have been a lot of pretty minerals.  The wood is still kind of pretty.  This big piece was in front of the offices/visitor center for the Falkirk Coal Mine.  It must have been found as they dug for coal. 

Local Fisherman

We were out fishing and had this pelican hang out with us.  He was obviously used to getting a fish thrown his way once in awhile.  People catch a fish that is fowl hooked and too small to keep so the pelican is there ready to take advantage of the situation.  I actually caught a small bass that I thought I would throw to the pelican but I'm terrible at throwing anything so of course the fish slipped out of my grasp and went safely back in the water.  The pelican finally gave up waiting for a meal and left.

The shoreline along the lake is interesting.  Here it looks like caves were carved out of the shoreline cliffs.  It just the way the soil erodes out -- if you can call it soil -- its hard as rock.  Many times while we are fishing the cows grazing in the fields along the water come down to the waters edge for a drink.  Its kind of funny to be fishing with cows -- although in west Texas we were fishing with goats along the shore. 

We've been catching some walleye mostly small -- 14 inches but I caught a very nice 19 inch fish and Jim lost a really nice one so we keep trying.  Its strange to us that the good fishing is really just  starting this late in the season but that's normal in this part of Lake Sakakawea.  We are more in the middle of the lake so it takes the longest to warm up.     

Junior Duck Stamps

When we toured the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge they had a display of Junior Duck Stamp winners.  Its hard to believe that these were done by kids.  They were all so well done but of course they were only displaying the winners.  We worked on the Junior Duck Stamp competition when we were at the wildlife refuge in Yuma.  It makes a lot more sense to see duck paintings in North Dakota where the ducks are much more plentiful. 

The fishing has picked up here and most people are bringing in fish.  I caught a nice walleye last time we were out but all Jim was getting were missed bites.   The campground is full every weekend and all the condos and cabins are always booked up so its a busy place. 

We got confirmation on having a job this winter back in Yuma.  The resort is brand new -- opening in November.  Its called Carefree RV Village.  From the website it looks like its going to be nice.  They must have gotten the pictures of the amenities from other places because its not even built yet. 

Falkirk Coal Mine

Hard to believe that North Dakota has coal mining.  The coal found here is lignite coal.  Its got a low sulphur content so its good for burning in power plants that generate electricity.  The Falkirk Mine is fairly new although it is mining on some ground that was mined in the past.  Its pretty much flat open prairie in the area.   They dig down to the coal moving tons of earth.  You can see the big strip of black on the side of the hill -- that's the coal.  We took a tour through the mine -- you just ride in a van and the driver tells you what's going on around you.  Its just big open pits -- the original mining that took place was in underground mines.  The pits like to fill up with water so they are constantly pumping them out.

They load the big haulers with the coal and then haul it over to the power plant.  The haulers were huge and each one hold 200 tons of coal.  When they get to the power plant the belly of the hauler opens and the coal all dumps out in about 20 seconds  -amazing.   The power plant that's burning all this coal actually is generating electricity that goes to two thirds of rural Minnesota. 

Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery

We toured the fish hatchery by the Garrison Dam.  It is one of the largest in the country.  The hatchery supplies fish for stocking lakes throughout the Midwest.  One tank had Pallid Sturgeon in it that were at least 6 feet long.  They were big enough to put a saddle on and ride.  They are native to the Missouri River and are endangered.  The hatchery captures wild sturgeon in the fall and spring.  The fish in these tanks are held until June when its time for them to spawn.  The young they produce are held for a year and then stocked back into the wild.

There were a whole bunch of cement tanks that were filled with baby trout.  There are automatic feeders hanging over them -- as shown in the picture.  A small trout was caught on the wire that is part of the feeder and Jim is trying to unhook it and save it.  Jim was afraid of hurting the fish so he gave up trying.  Just then one of the US Fish and Wildlife employees came through and he was able to unhook the fish.  He said it happens every once in a while.  When the fish tap on the wire it releases the food into the water and sometimes the fish get too excited trying to get the food and get stuck on the wire. 

Fort Stevenson State Park

We did some sightseeing in the area.  There is a state park just south of Garrison on the lake.  It is on the site of where an old fort was in the 1800's.  The fort was active from just after the civil war until the late 1800's.  They have rebuilt the old guard house and turned it into a museum.  It is a great place to learn about the history along the Missouri River.  Before the dams were put in  -- the river was usually too high or too low.  They used keel boats to get up river and then finally steamboats.  The survivors (mostly wounded soldiers) of the Battle at Little Bighorn (Custers disaster) fled by steamboat and Fort Stevenson was the first safe place they went. 

The fort was originally built to protect the native Americans in the area.  This is the opposite of why most forts were built.  The government put three tribes together on reservations that were mortal enemies of each other.  The museum had artifacts from the natives as well as the military.   There were paintings that depicted fort life painted by a self taught native American artist.  All kinds of guns and cannons used by the military were on display.   When the fort was decommissioned in the late 1800's everything was auctioned off.  Many locals bought up the stuff and over the years have donated it back to the museum.  For its small size it was packed with lots of informative stuff.  Well worth the entrance fee of five dollars plus we checked out the campground.  Very nice paved, level sites with water and electric. 

Lake Views

Its hard to believe you can find scenery like this in the heart of North Dakota.  The lakeshore is very pretty because the Missouri River has cut so deep into the land creating beautiful hills all along the "lake".  Fishing has been tough close to the resort.  Many fishermen are taking their boats 20 or 30 miles up the road to some warmer waters.  They have been pulling out really nice walleyes.  We don't want to go because its 3 miles of washboard gravel road before you get to the highway.  The boat takes such a beating traveling across country that we just don't want to subject it to more abuse.  They tell us that by July the fish come down river closer to the resort and then the fishing here will be on fire.  Can't wait!

We drove to Minot -- about 80 miles one way - to hit the Walmart.  I had to get my Walmart fix.  We've been exploring more and more of the lake but there is still so much more to explore.  We don't dare go too far when there is a chance of the wind kicking up because the waves get to dangerous.  The water is still rising -- there is still so much snow in the mountains that the snow gauges are still buried. 

Nice Fish

Jim finally caught his first walleye.  It was 22 inches long a very nice fish but not a great picture.  I caught this huge 17 inch smallmouth bass.  Its hard to find warm water which is where the fish are biting.  The snow in the mountains is still melting and the melt water runs into the Missouri River.  The water has been coming up over a foot or two a week.  They are saying it will come up another 5 feet before the melt is over.  They seem to take the changing water levels in stride here.  The boat ramp is very long so it can be used as the water continues to climb. 


We were looking at the webcam at Northern Lights Resort in Minnesota where we were last year.  The water has risen so high there that it is up over all of their docks.  We are glad not to be there facing that mess.  I hear some of the resorts on Lake Kabetogama have had docks damaged from the high water.   We seem to be above the rain line here at Indian Hills in North Dakota.  The rain has all been pretty much south of us.  Its only rained (very lightly) here about three times since mid-May.