Some days this job is the pits where everything sucks but then there are days like today where this job is the absolute best! I have been on this rig for all most a week and I have seen all of about 500 ft. of drilling. That is incredibly slow even for the slowest of rigs. After a week of little to no drilling I woke this morning to yet another day of down time do to tripping. I decided that it was time to go explore Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
I got a rather late start and paid for it latter in sweat. By the time I got to the park and on to the trail the sun was high in the sky and burning bright without a cloud in the sky. The vistas looked amazing anyway!
The story of the park is that Theodore came here as a young man after the death of his mother and wife. He fell in love with the wildness of the place and decided to stay for a while. He tried his hand and ranching and hand several different herds and brands. But turns out he wasn’t a very good rancher and eventually moved back New York to continue his political career.
Teddy did add this area to the areas he protected and it has been a park ever sense. The more you look at the landscape the more you see the rugged beauty of the place.
A verity of grasses cover the abandoned river terraces on top of the hills and the river bottoms. North facing slopes are covered in scrawny Juniper trees and cottonwoods flourish in the river bottoms. The animal count for the day includes buffalo, birds, one snake, and prairie dogs. Including one overly photogenic prairie dog that I named Alan.
Sadly I couldn’t play all day and after pizza and a live band concert in town it was back to work. Happy Saturday y’all!
