We stayed in Wall knowing we wanted to try and get tickets to the Minuteman Missile Launch Control Facility in the morning. The visitor center opened at 8:00 am with the first tour of the day (6 people per tour) at 8:30 am. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we went over four blocks to Wall Drug. It was about what we remembered it...not quite our style. But, we both did eye the breakfast buffet and wondered if we should have skipped the continental breakfast at the hotel.
We arrived at the visitor center of Minuteman Missile at about 7:55 am, there was nobody else in the parking lot so when it opened at 8:00 am, we got on the first tour. It filled up quickly.
Getting on the highway, a few miles down the road was the launch control facility. A standard looking ranch home from the exterior (with a large gate around it). The first floor was the living quarters - nothing special. They talked about things such as shifts, sleeping, eating, gun storage... Then, they took us down the elevator below. The concrete capsule below ground had a tremendous thickness and a huge steel door. The sites were not deactivated until the early 1990's. The mural on the door was interesting...
The systems seemed so old - no wireless here. They had two people working in the capsule at any one given time. There were two key locations 12' apart - each key had to be turned at the same time for activation so no single person could activate a missile. They had a bed - but only one person could sleep at once. It was pretty interesting. They did mention that on occasion, service men that worked at the facilities would come back to give the tour or answer questions - that would be an interesting day to be there. They did say a few times that many said it was the most boring job around.
After the tour, we headed down the road to the launch facility - it was gated in and we couldn't get past. I guess someone forgot to unlock it this day we were here. We knew we were on a schedule and had to get moving. Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit was the next stop - some five + hours to the north.
Driving through South Dakota was uneventful...I suppose North Dakota was too. But once we hit North Dakota - we were seeing the results of the oil work. Traffic - in the middle of nowhere? Land of trucks - of all sizes. Temporary housing... It was strange to see this in the middle of nowhere.
Once getting into the park - it was just us and a few others. Very quiet. We went straight to the visitor center (thank goodness for the time change), talked to the rangers, and then went over to the campground. It was a fairly large campground, with just about nobody in it....well, except for all of those mosquitoes.
One of the nicest stops in the North Unit is at the River Bend Overlook - a small walk leads you out to a CCC shelter overlooking the river.
Very beautiful.
We went to road end and did an easier 2/2.5 mile hike. In the trail register, one person had wrote - "Didn't get to Overlook; Bison in trail that wouldn't move.". We didn't have that problem - we only saw two bison off in the distance.
We walked quick - you couldn't stop because of the mosquitoes. I just kept thinking about snakes being in the grass - but we saw none.
We decided to eat our Safeway sandwiches in the car due to the bugs. We finished just in time to hop out to watch the sunset at the River Bend Overlook.
A nice way to end the day.
It was very peaceful in the north unit. We didn't see all that much wildlife here. We did hear coyotes in the distance while camping. At some point in the middle of the night - there was a critter outside the tent right by my head - I wish I would have had the puppy dog Andra or Mr. Rowan to take care of that. After it got dark, we put the kindle up on the dashboard of the car and watched a movie. It was just too buggy outside. We did get a good look at the stars though - a very great park to see stars.
4 comments:
Bugs are the worst! Glad they didn't carry you off or eat you alive.
Ah, Wall Drug! :) Good to see what I missed on the missile tour. Maybe next summer I'll have to go back. too bad about the mosquitoes. They are sometimes bad in that part of the country.
There were silos near Grand Forks, N.D., when I was growing up (my grandmother lived about an hour's drive north & a bit east). I can remember driving by the barbed wire fences with no trespassing signs. Had no idea what they were until the early 1980s, when I was in university, and the Cold War was amping up again. Probably just as well...!!
Such beautiful sunsets! The night we camped at T.R. was awesome and you could hear the wild horses around the river in the morning. :) I was surprised about the mosquitos because I had thought it was cold there....maybe no frost yet??
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