North Dakota 😎

Never in my life thought I’d see North Dakota but here we are! 

North Dakota is a large expanse of land. Crossing over from MN to ND I am beginning to see more landscape changes than in any other State thus far. 

Picture the end of the movie "Castaway" with Tom Hanks when he gets to the literal crossroad no and stands looking down four desolate roads trying to decide which way to go...I found that spot! Well, to be honest, there are many spots that look like that in North Dakota!

CASTAWAY! 

Now imagine another favorite movie in which Tom Hanks as Forest Gump (long bearded by this time) is running along this seemingly endless road with a gang of followers when he stops and says that he's going to go home. I was there too! Again, there are many roads that look like this, but this was, to me, the movie set.

We have entered the 'wild west' for sure. Grasslands - 'National Grasslands' - there are 17 of them! Who knew?

In 2017, North Dakota led the nation in the production of all dry edible beans, navy beans, pinto beans, canola, flaxseed, honey, dry edible peas, Durum wheat, and spring wheat. North Dakota was the No. 2 producer of lentils, black beans, great northern beans, all wheat, and sunflowers. SUNFLOWERS FOR AS FAR AS OUR EYES CAN SEE!

We made our way to the Teddy Roosevelt National Park and I was able to use my 'senior' National Park pass to drive through this remarkable geological wonder. We glided (yes, the RV glides over hills!) over this long and high hill into a valley of wonderment...millions of years of erosion. The landscape of the badlands is constantly changing. Soft bentonite clay is easily eroded by wind and water, creating a wrinkled appearance to the ground when observed up close. On a larger scale, water has carved the landscape into a rugged system of buttes and canyons. By their very nature, badlands are constantly changing as the soft sedimentary rock layers erode.

There is so much to say about North Dakota and it's probably because it is so very different from the landscapes of the Northeast. Driving north to south on RT 85 was surreal. I wanted to stop and take photographs because what I saw was remarkable, but I realized that there was no way to capture the scenes with a photo. I kept saying to Ginger how I felt as if I was passing through a movie set. Rolling hills, buttes for ever...no, not butts, BUTTES! Southwestern North Dakota, with its badlands, buttes, and broad vistas is largely the result of hundreds of thousands of years of erosion.