Meadowlark, a horse motel in Florence, North Dakota

 

Meadowlark is a listing on horsemotel.com. This is the perfect place to stop to break up a long drive.

There is no shopping close by, so have all your supplies stocked before you head in.

$20 per horse and they get this fabulous green pasture to roam and graze. This is Hilton five star accommodations as far as our horses are concerned.

Trailer parking is free. We got water and electric hook-up.

A really nice level spot - plenty of room for a large rig.

No trails, but Ari rode my horse both days just using the dirt/gravel roads around the property.

Sheyenne Oaks - Leonard, North Dakota

 

This campground exceeded our expectations in many ways.

We had full hook-up for our trailer. The campsites were spacious and well kept.

There was a laundry room with one washer and one dryer. The dryer didn't work very well, but the clothes came out clean.

I had booked a massage for each of us when I booked the campground. It was wonderful to be able to just walk through the campground to one of the cabins in order to get our massage.

The corrals were a bit disappointing. No cover on any of the corrals. Standard 12' x 12' and many of them were not clean or filled with weeds.

It rained the day after our arrival - pretty much the entire day a steady stream of water. Ari put up our new pop-up shelter to provide some cover for the horses and they definitely appreciated it.

To pass the rainy day, I went into Fargo - about an hour away. I visited the Plains Art Museum. The had these cute gender pins in the gift shop. 

They had a gallery with the theme of light. 

This piece is meant to act as a response to the classic artwork The End of the Trail.

Fraser first modeled the subject in 1894. He based it on his experience as a boy in the Dakota Territory. His memoirs state, "as a boy, I remembered an old Dakota trapper saying, 'The Indians will someday be pushed into the Pacific Ocean.'" Later he stated "the idea occurred to me of making an Indian which represented his race reaching the end of the trail, at the edge of the Pacific."

The artist is a Native American and his response is that at the end of the trail is "light" and you can't extinguish the light of the indigenous people.

This is a bag decorated with mirrors. What struck me was the informational plate which said the mirrors are used to reflect back evil intentions or envy. 

This piece was designed by an aerospace engineer named John Macpherson. He spent 20 years working as an engineer, then switched to art and actually got a degree in visual arts. His art explores applying mathematical and scientific principals to the piece.

This artwork represents the different wavelengths of light and the colors each wavelength can produce.

So, it is a physical representation of a principal of physics.

I am impressed by someone who spent half his life in a very "left-brained" field and now has switched to using his right brain but applying what he learned in his earlier career.

This piece is by an Israeli artist called Yaacov Agam and is entitled French Postage Stamp.

It uses lenticular images which basically changes the way the piece looks depending on the angle. 

This is the same method to use to create greeting cards where the image changes.

Lenticular printing is a multi-step process which consists of creating a lenticular image from at least two images, and combining it with a lenticular lens. This process can be used to create various frames of animation (for a motion effect), offsetting the various layers at different increments (for a 3D effect), or simply to show a set of alternative images which may appear to transform into each other. Once the various images are collected, they are flattened into individual, different frame files, and then digitally combined into a single final file in a process called interlacing.

On Thursday, it had dried up enough for us to try to hit the trails. 

We rode through a pasture filled with cows.

The trails were flat and well marked, easy to follow.

We really liked this campground - full hook-up, beautiful trails, and an on-site massage.

After a day stuck in a small corral, my horse was amped up and spooked by the cows. 

He took off on me. I managed to stay in the saddle, but it was a scary ride.

We are going to be staying at an equestrian center for a couple of days coming up.

 I am hoping I can use their arena and their round pen to get my horse back under control and settled down.

Fort Ransom - North Dakota

 

Fort Ransom - our last state park in North Dakota. Once again, Google Maps failed us, directing us to take 60th Street, which is a dead end. We met another vehicle on the road whose driver advised us to turn around. We managed to turn around at a cemetery without damaging anything.

To access the park, enter the Visitor Center as the destination and take the Hjelle Parkway to the 2nd Street entrance.

We checked in at the visitor center and topped off our fresh water tank.

There are electric hook-ups, but no water and sewer hook-ups at the equestrian campsites.

There are two equestrian campsites in the park - the Sunne campground is 100% dry camping. The Riverside Campground has electric hook-ups and water pumps available.

Vault toilets are at both campgrounds. No shower house and no laundry.

There is an RV dump located at the Westside campground and a large dumpster is there as well.

Horses are in 10 ft x 10 ft corrals - uncovered.

We camped at the Riverside campground. The campsites are large, some shade, and well maintained.

Check out all the pretty yellow daisies. We rode through the Sheyenne Grasslands. Trails are flat and easy, some inclines, but nothing like the Badlands. 

My horse is still acting up on the trail. He spooks and bolts. So far, I have managed to stay in the saddle, but I am not feeling safe. 

I need to build up Mercutio's confidence on the trail and mine as well.

We are going to aim for shorter rides with very tame trails moving forward until he calms down.

Ari loved the trails. They were well marked and maintained and I would have loved to have been able to explore more, but I couldn't trust my horse to behave.

Hopefully, with a little more work, he will calm down and become more safe.

Parkhurst Campground - Jamestown, North Dakota

 

This campground actually exceeded my expectations - but my expectations were pretty low.

The horse corrals were filled with weeds and dirty, but the corrals were secure. As long as our horses are safe, it's good.

There are about ten campsites that have high-lines for horses, which is very nice. I don't mind highlining my horse while I am eating or for short periods, but I don't feel comfortable doing it for overnight. A lot of horses are actually more comfortable on a high line.

If you do plan to high line your horse, do some trial periods where you are close by and can watch to make sure the horse doesn't get tangled up and is OK.

The campsites were no hook-up, but we parked next to the camp host and plugged into a spare outlet to get electricity.

There is one water pump with non-potable water for the campground.

There are vault toilets and a free RV dump.

We went into Jamestown because we wanted to see the World's Largest Buffalo.

Jamestown is a lovely small town with some beautiful architecture.

The World's Largest Buffalo is located in Frontier Town, a small tourist attraction, which looks a little worn.

There is a small herd of buffalo in the pasture across from the World's Largest Buffalo.

We even lucked into the last summer concert of the season at a park in downtown Jamestown.

I put the horses on a couple of the high lines to allow them to graze. 

While the horses were otherwise occupied, we cleaned all the weeds out of the corrals.

That afternoon there was a track meet at the park. I went out to buy groceries and when I came back there were easily 50 cars parked in the campground, along with a large school bus.

They  left around 5 in the afternoon.

One of the kids managed to sell Ari three candy bars as part of a school fundraiser. The kid used one of the oldest tricks in the book. He told Ari that they were the last three candy bars he had to sell.

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park - Mandan, North Dakota

 

Harmony Stables gave us this nice note set as a parting gift.

This is our third state park in North Dakota. Ari says this is his favorite, so far.

There is an RV dump in the non-equestrian campground area. We were a little worried that our LQ was too big, but it fit just fine.

The horses are spoiled - they have a large pen with a covered area. 

There is a water pump and stock trough in the large pen.

There are open pipe corrals in the equestrian campground, but we put our horses up in the nicer pens.

The equestrian campground has only four sites, but they are well kept. Not a lot of shade. 

No hook-ups. This is boondocking only.

There are a couple of water pumps available, but you need a decent amount of hose to get water to your campsite.

Our Winegard had no problems here and we were able to stream movies in the evening.

You can see the Little Missouri River from the campground in the distance.

Tacking up for our ride, vault toilet in the background.

The trails don't have a lot of shade, but it is easy riding. I am hoping my horse and I can relax a bit now that we are out of the Badlands.

This picture was taken by some tourists. We are above the fort cemetery with the Little Missouri River in the background. The views from the trails on the ridge lines are fabulous.

Both horses were kept barefoot and did fine.

You can see the Little Missouri River on the left.

General Custer and his troops were stationed at this fort. They were tasked at handling the "Indian problem" and protecting the settlers in the area.

This is Custer's house. The nicest building on the property. There is a lovely grand veranda.

You can see the well that was used for water on the left and a small servant's quarters.

Bismarck is on the other side of the river. At the time, it was little more than a small group of homesteads.

The commissary is now a small gift shop with a little cafe. The ranger working there allowed us to charge our jackery in his office so we wouldn't have to run our generator too much.

There also is a nice sitting area where you can plug in your laptop with free WIFI.

 

We rode the same trail as Custer and his troops as they marched out to the Battle of the Little Big Horn. None of the casualties from that battle are buried at the cemetery here.

The terrain is pretty much what the troops marched through, so we got a real sense of history.

On the Custer Trail - this is where the troops marched in formation...to one of the biggest massacres in American history. You can see the barracks where the troops lived in the distance.

Little Missouri River behind me

Mandan has a beautiful indoor community pool. $5 for seniors. There is an aqua aerobics class three afternoons a week. We attended two of the classes. It was so nice to get in the water and get some nice exercise. The classes were great fun.

It was only about 15 minutes to drive into Mandan for the swim classes and groceries.