Williston to Theodore Roosevelt National Park
At this point I am further behind on my account of my 2015 road trip. Driving, touring, and photographing all day every day was too much to be able to work up images and blog posts every day. I have now returned home but I will continue to report on my adventure.
Following a wonderful tour of the remote north west corner of North Dakota I spent the night in Williston, which has largely been taken over by the Bakken Shale oil business. The area around Williston looks to me like a big industrial park. Much has been written about the pro and con of this new oil boom, so I’ll pass on commenting at this point.
So after spending the night in Williston, I set off for Theodore Roosevelt National Park, just a little over 2 hours south of Williston. On the suggestion of Dan Smith of Rolette, ND, I took the alternate route from the main road and followed Route 16 over the beautiful rolling prairie to the town of Beach.
Along the way I saw that the grain bins that populated the prairie in the northern and eastern part of North Dakota have replaced with oil rigs.
This pretty church was sitting by the side of the road. It looks to be in good condtion on the outside but there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that is still in use.
And a little way down the road I spotted this curious machine.
Eventually I arrived in the town of Beach and captured this interesting grain elevator.
Beach sits on Interstate 94 that runs from Milwaukee across Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and on into Montana. Medora, the gateway city for Theodore Roosevelt Park is about 25 miles east of Beach on I94. But I opted for the “scenic route” on Old Highway 10 through Sentinel Butte. Much better than an Interstate.
Light, Shadow, Form, and Texture 
Rip, The church on the road to Beach is open. You could go inside. That is, unless they started closing and locking within the past two months. The machine is a gravel sweeper. Drived down the highway after repair or resurfacing and sweeps the gravel off the roadway. Beach is an interesting drive and Medora a short distance from it. Hope it was worth your time. Dan
pyrocat1 said this on September 24, 2015 at 8:42 pm
Thanks, Dan. Yes it was well worth the detour.
Admin2 said this on September 25, 2015 at 3:50 pm