by Kelli Bowen
As days do, they seem to slip away from me. While on vacation recently, Hubby and I had plans of leaving early and seeing the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
As the day slipped away, we realized we were still a few hours of driving away and wouldn’t get there until it was time to turn in for the night so I did a quick search and found a state park.
This state park, we had never been to and hadn’t even heard of: Cross Ranch State Park. Online they seemed to have multiple open campsites for the night and we haven’t met a state park we haven’t liked, so we pointed our pickup north and headed up the “shortest route” provided by Google.
The shortest route does not mean the most maintained, so we ended up driving several miles of muddy gravel but we saw some of the most beautiful rolling hills as we discovered this new-to-us area of North Dakota.
We arrived at our destination and Miss E and Miss A hopped out for a bathroom break, and as soon as Miss A saw the playground, she gone.
We found a pull-thru spot with a little space between us and the next campers. Then we set up for the night, just in time for a rain shower.
As morning came, we went on some trails, hit the playground again, and learned about the Missouri River.
Hubby and I wandered over to look at the Missouri River again and started chatting with a gentleman who was fishing.
We played “It’s a small world,” discovered we knew a few of the same people. His wife and I were from the same area, and we share a passion for photography. After swapping a few check-this-out images, his friends arrived to collect him, he took our photo, and we said goodbye.
Cross Ranch State Park may be a new favorite on our list. Cheers to plans changing!
Kelli makes her home in Cass County with her husband, two daughters (10 and 7) and two dogs. She works for a regional seed company by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend and writer by night.
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