More Dams As We Are Homeward Bound - Garrison

The next few posts will be summaries of the last few weeks since there has not been a great deal of activity and the weather has been less than stellar, keeping us inside more than anticipated. We left Ft. Peck, MT early Friday, 8/7 and drove the long way around to get to the Garrison Dam at Riverdale, ND to try to avoid road construction on US2 and supposedly multiple miles of gravel road, especially after the rain we had been having. MT actually posts signs about the gumbo the ground becomes after a rain if you get off on the dirt roads and how you will most proably need a 4 wheel drive to get out. Anyway, we went south from the campground at Ft. Peck on MT 24 until we reached MT 200. We followed MT 200 east, splitting on to 200S some ways out and then we went back to the Interstate. I-94 is a nice drive through eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Once you hit the western ND state line on I-94 you drive through thier badlands and part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We stopped at the rst area there- and we were not the only ones "walking" our pets. No one but Bruce & I thought this was at all out of the ordinary - only in North Dakota.
While there we also walked along the Painted Canyon, although the weather was overcast and the colors not as vibrant as when sunny. Continuing on, we drove to Bismark, Nd where we turned north on US 83 to Riverdale, crossed the Garrison Dam spillway, went down the tow road on the side of the dam (yes it is another earthen dam) and arrived at the Downstream Campground. Have you noticed a similarity in the names of most of these Corp parks close to dams - Downstream, Tailwaters, etc. Can you guess where they situate them? The Downstream campground at Garrison was really in the middle of nowhere Everything around us concerned farming with wheat, corn and I think soybeans the crops we saw most of this time - and of course cattle. The wheat is actually quite beautiful in all of its stages. We saw both the golden wheat ready for harvest and some fields of green wheat- and both were the "waves of grain" of America The Beautiful. Speaking of that song, I think we may have seen all of the references so far on this trip, spacious skies, purple mountains majesty, amber waves of grain, fruited plains, etc.

Downstream Campground at Garrison Dam, ND is also along the Missouri River. Seems there are 6 major dams on the Missouri, with Ft. Peck being the first in Montana and Garrison being the second as the Missouri passes through North Dakota. There are 3 additional dams in South Dakota and then the final and smallest one- Gavins Point, on the SD/Nebraska border where we went next. The thing about all of these locations is that we seem to remain on the Lewis & Clark Trail - although we are moving backwards (eastward) instead of westward.

We didn't get to take the tour at Garrison as the last one that week was on Saturday just after we arrived so we drove around, read all of the informational postings, took pictures and educated ourselves. Garrison Dam is a 2 mile earthen dame and creates Lake Sakakawea (I know, we all grew up with it being Sacajawea but specialists today think that is incorrect- it is either with a hard g (guh) or k. This is a much disputed name- but North Dakota chose to use the K for the Lake)At 173 miles long, it is the third largest man-made lake in the US - only Lake Mead and Lake Powell are larger and is used for all of the usual water activities. The dam itself provides hydroelectric power, navigation control and irrigation management. The intake gates are not attached to the power plant which is located on the downstream side of the dam at the bottom of the first picture. They are in the lake and both are at located at the southwestern edge of the dam. The spillway is at the northeastern edge of the dam- and the water from it goes into Spillway Pond.

The campground where we stayed is also located on the downstream side of the dam, nehce its name- Downstream. The sites were spacious and the campground large, with 3 different locations. Our site as at the far end of the campground and backed up to the vegetation that grew along the high banks of the Missouri. We faced a large park-like circle so we had the benefit of being able to watch all of the on-goings of those residents during our 2 days of rain. The rain stopped late Sunday evening and the group occupying most of the sites around that inner circle got to celebrate Christmas in August outside. It seems they could never find any place at Christmas to accomodate them all, so moved that holiday to the Campground at Garrison and to August. fAfter the ususal christmas Buffet (with somked meat of some type) they all particpated in the gift game where the order is determined by your birthday or numbers sleected or soemthing like that, and the person can take (steal) the already unwrapped present of a prior selectee or select a wrapped present. If you look at the picture closely, you will note that all of this All of this joviality took place under a lighted and decorated Christmas Tree (that was set up when we arrived and in its own screen room with its 2 companions) and a lighted, animated reindeer and moose. It was great fun for all, inlcuding the o bservers and we were all happy they left the decorations until the next morning so we could all enjoy them once it was dark.

Enough of Garrison- those were the highlights and we are almost to Grand Rivers so I will bring you up to date with Gavins Point in my next update.

Ft. Peck Lake

We are still at Ft. Peck Lake campground (the green part of the picture left of the dam across the Missouri River) but are getting ready to move on tomorrow. We will be driving to Garrison Dam, another of the dams built by the Corp of Engineers, but until then a little more about Ft. Peck Lake. This lake is 143 miles long and is the largest lake in Montana. It spreads westward from here (Ft.. Peck) back towards Great Falls, MT. There are over 1520 miles of shoreline and the lake is 220 feet deep. The whole lake rests inside the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge and much of the access is remote so much of the shoreline can actually be considered to be in the middle of nowhere. The lake is so large and there is so much wind in this area that small boats can at times easily be capsized by the waves. The whole area is included in what is known as the Montana Hi-Line, the 100 miles from the Canadian border south between North Dakota and Rocky Mountains in the west along US 2, As I stated in an earlier posting, this area is rolling hills and prairie, fields of wheat and herds of cattle with mountains in the distance. It is a sportsman's paradise for fishing and hunting along with recreational birding and of course hiking and all of the water sports on the lakes. It seems everyone has a boat of some kind and a four wheeler. As for Bruce, it is the place where there are more old trucks on the roads and sitting abandoned in the fields that are in pretty decent shape than in any other place we have been yet. He would move here in a minute just to be around all of that wonderful iron and steel, except the winter temperatures are in the minus 30-50 degree area for 30 or more days a year. That is just unthinkable for us- so we will stay in Florida and he can just dream about those old trucks- oh and come visit them in the summer.

Yesterday we rode to Wolf Point to visit a junk yard Bruce had heard about. He is always hopeful he will find that missing front passenger fender for his jeep, but it was not to be. He did find several old wheels (don't ask what they will be used for, he just loves them) to cart home and an old drill press at a stop in Glasgow the day before. He seems to think that he should be allowed to spend as much on junk as I have spent on quilting "stuff". Speaking of quilting stuff, we also found a new quilt store in Wolf Point called Fabric Attic. I wasn't going to stop - but am glad we did. This shop has more of what I would call theme/novelty print material than any shop I have ever seen. They also carried some of the brand new materials and I bought quite a bit of Mark Lipinski's oakdale line from Northcott as well as some of his Katmandu line - The Quilts from Pickle Row. Both are wonderful prints and the oakdale is as soft as silk. Now to find the perfect pattern for that material - the search is on!!

Bruce is done getting the outside area ready to leave tomorrow - putting everything away except the last bit of firewood that we hope to be able to burn this evening. It is overcast and raining a bit now, so who knows if that will be possible. We are off To Glasgow to visit the local RV place and proably hit Albertsons to see what is on sale today and of course one last look through the Plaid Square for me - who knows what wonderful item still waits in yonder town for my discovery. Later-------------