Sully Creek State Park - Medora, North Dakota

 We enjoyed our stay at Sully Creek State Park, even though the temperature was in the triple digits, making it too hot to ride most of our stay.

Campsites are good sized and mostly shady. We had electric hook-up only. There are water pumps placed throughout the park, but you need a lot of hose to get water to the horses and trailer. There are vault toilets and fire rings. There is a shower house (pay) close to the entrance. They also sell hay. The hay was good quality and only $8 per bale.

There is a good-sized round pen. We have been putting the horses in the round pen so they can stretch their legs and take rolls.

We used PVC pipe and tarp to cover the corrals to provide the horses with some shade. The wind made it so we would have to take down the tarp and re-do it each day, but at least the horses had some relief from the heat. We used zip ties to secure the pipe and tarp because it is easy to just cut the ties to take everything down.

The air quality due to wildfires has been in the 150 range - which is really poor.

Due to the heat, we spent more than one evening at the Medora City Pool. They don't have any adult lap swim periods, but we were told that if we came after 7 pm, the pool is pretty empty. This was true. It was $4 per person to get in, which was reasonable. The pool was heated and pleasant. They provide pool noodles and toys for the swimmers.

I had reserved to spend some time at the Boots Campground which is across the road. They advertise that they have horse pens and full hook-up.

But when we checked it out, they had a trailer blocking access to the horse pens, plus the pens were filled with garbage and were in no condition to be used.

So, we cancelled the reservation and went back to Sully Creek.

For Ari's birthday, we went into Dickinson, had lunch at Applebee's and then toured the Pioneer Museum. These are petrified wood fragments.

Dickinson is the closest big town and most of the restaurants are fast food. Applebee's was pretty much the nicest restaurant available.

Medora has several restaurants offering burgers and sandwiches, a pizza joint, and one very upscale and over-priced restaurant.

The big treat for Ari's birthday was going to the Pitchfork Steak Fondue dinner and the Medora Musical - a variety show.

The venue was beautiful with fantastic views of the Badlands.

Dining was outdoors in a large pavilion.

Steaks were cooked using pitchforks.

The steaks were pretty good, but we were disappointed in the meal as a whole. Food was served buffet style. Click the link to see how the steaks are cooked and served.

The menu included cold, hard Texas toast, cold baked potatoes with butter and sour cream, cole slaw, mushy watermelon and cantaloupe, cold baby carrots and cold cauliflower and broccoli with ranch dressing. Dessert was chocolate brownies - which were pretty good - and tiny sugar donuts.

They were charging around $20 for a meal without the steak.  They had hot dogs available for those of us that didn't order steak. Condiments were mustard and ketchup. The hot dogs were not the best. I have had better hot dogs off street carts - plus the street carts have better condiments.

So, for $5 I can get a hot dog, a soda, and a bag of chips off the street cart near Laney College, where I used to teach, OR I could pay $20 plus for cold, barely edible food at this venue. 

I know it can be challenging to serve hundreds of people at the same time, but most buffets are familiar with how to use warming trays. 

Ari was hungry after the buffet but wasn't interested in any more of their food.

I had reserved us to eat at the 5:15 pm seating, but the show wasn't due to start until 7:30. This meant we had more than an hour to kill before the show.

The views were lovely.

Statues in tribute to the couple that donated for the construction of the venue.

Going in to the Pitchfork Steak Fondue dinner. Hint: - there was no fondue.

We had front row seats to the show. The stage set was really nice. The show beat our expectations.

It was very high energy and the performers were wonderful.

They had a guest segment with The Chicago Boyz  - an acrobatic troupe from Chicago. They appeared on America's Got Talent. They were pretty good. They would make a good act at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk or at a state fair.

Like most entertainment in the mid-west, the show opened with the Star Spangled Banner.

The musical numbers were high energy and very entertaining.