Day 23 - On to North Dakota

After a second night at Lost Johnny Point Campground (I’d like to hear the story behind that name.) on the sprawling and huge Hungry Horse Lake, we headed northeast toward North Dakota.

By the way, I couldn’t get a great picture but this what a forest fire looks like about 10 years later. The sun hits the forest floor, no longer held back by a canopy of tree tops, and the seed bank that has been patiently waiting for this moment, jump at the chance to sprout. It’s similar to the effects of a clear-cut back east.

You could spend a whole summer exploring this 34 mile lake. I would need something better than my little 2.5 horsepower motor for that though.

We went through a section of what appeared to be a cattle ranch that had dozens upon dozens of these little shacks, with solar panels on top. I have no idea what purpose they serve, but you can bet I wish I had as a hunting shack back home.

Lots of old grain elevators across North Dakota. This one was actually in pretty good shape.

And I’m pleased to say, we managed to find it:

However, no deer and antelope seen at play, unfortunately.

We stopped overnight at a rest area in Montana, where Liz got some good sunset photos. (By the way, quite a few of the pics on here are hers. Gotta give credit where it’s due!)

Speaking of photographers, Breana has been contributing to this blog as well. Here’s a bit more of her talents behind the lens.

An easy four hour drive later, (amazing how four hours is nothing to us now) we found the dirt road near Medora, North Dakota that led to the public land first-come, first-serve, off-the-grid campsites. It’s a point of pride for us to have only had to pay for three or four actual campgrounds on this trip and two of those were “dry” camps with no water or sewer hookups. Basically, only areas where dispersed camping wasn’t available nearby. We found a beautiful hilltop site with a great view of the landscape.

For dinner, we had a reservation at the Medora Pitchfork Fondue. Back in 2021, after we sold our house in Michigan, we had planned to travel for awhile before looking for a house. We ended up buying one right away, so we put the trip on hold. But before that happened, we had purchased tickets for this famed feast that we ultimately couldn’t use. Fast forward to this trip in 2025. She called them and they were gracious enough to honor those tickets. Nice!

The novelty here is the literal pitchforks they use to dunk 12 oz New York Strips into cauldrons filled with hot oil.