Coulees and Caprocks

Tuesday, July 21, 2020 – Theodore Roosevelt National Park

I can’t sleep once it is light out. Once I am up and out of the tent there is no going back to sleep if the sun is up, so I make some coffee and read. I was reading The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen on this trip. It is a great book – half expedition journal and half introspection into Matthiessen’s soul. Perhaps it was the reason I started thinking about writing a blog on this trip.

The morning was beautiful. Our site was shady but the adjacent field and hillside beyond were bathed in bright sunlight. It was cool in the shade, perfect for a sweatshirt and hot coffee. The sleeping bag felt really good the night before and I slept really well. I always sleep well in a tent in cool weather. I was energized for a new day.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is split into a North and South Unit. The South Unit is at Medora, near Interstate 94, and is the more popular of the two. The North Unit is a 75-mile drive from there. It’s a 75 mile drive through nothing but ranches and oil rigs. It’s starkly beautiful in its own right, but boring after about 20 miles. The road is nearly arrow straight for 75 miles with just the occasional slight bend, until you come to the Little Missouri and the North Unit entrance. As you approach the river there are a few bends and the road dips into the canyons. The scenery changes drastically with the beauty of the canyon walls. The North Unit is well worth the drive.

We spent this day at the North Unit and started by hiking the Coulee-Caprock trail. The trail is listed as 4.1 miles, but with a side trip to an overlook and a wrong turn by our navigator (that would be me), we made it almost 5 miles. We learned on the hike that a coulee is a small canyon that generally only has water during or immediately after a rain. We learned that a caprock is hard rock that protects the weak, sandy rock below from erosion, resulting in pillars with these caprocks on top. The trail passed through several coulees and by many caprocks. The terrain all around is prairie – wide open, arid grassland. It was hot, dry, and rather inhospitable. But in the coulees there were trees. Not big trees, but trees all the same. The intermittent small amounts of water that gather in the coulees were enough to nourish these trees and undergrowth beneath them, providing a narrow yet thick, shady and cool respite from the prairie. Once again, we were awed by the effect of a small amount of water.

After the Coulee-Caprock hike we found a bit of shade at an overlook and made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I love good food. Elsewhere in this blog I’m sure I will write about some of the fine meals I have had in some of the best restaurants around the United States and in various places around the world. But it is hard to beat a good PB&J. Especially in the great outdoors.

We explored the North Unit all the way to the end of the road, and then of course had to go just a little further. From the parking area at the end of the road it is a 1.2 mile hike to Sperati Point. When I was writing in the journal that evening I had to look up the name – all I could remember was Spumoni or Spiccoli, but it wasn’t dessert or Fast Times. It was Sperati. Anyway, the hike was relatively flat compared to the morning hike and had a spectacular view of the canyon and the Little Missouri River below.

When we got back to Medora we stopped for some supplies and our daily ice cream – Huckleberry this time. Some say you are in The West once you reach the prairies. I have also heard it said that The West starts where the average rainfall drops below 20 inches a year. I say The West starts where you can get Huckleberry ice cream.