May 13, 2016

There is a downside to going to a national park before the season really starts, at least one in the middle of nowhere. Food is hard to come by. If you want to eat in this park it must be between 8am and 4:30pm. Today  we left before the restaurant opened and thought we would pack a lunch. We were gone all day and I left lunch on the table. Breakfast and lunch were sparse and we didn’t want to rush back for a 4:30 dinner so we thought we would go to Cactus Flats. On the way we visited the prairie homestead which was a sod house and we stopped at the ranch store. This is where you can feed prairie dogs. Although the store was closed, on the honor system ,you could leave a dollar and take a bag of peanuts to feed the little guys. I think I had an allergic reaction to them.  We trekked to  Cactus Flats, drove right through and didn’t even notice. It consisted of a trading post. With no hope of a restaurant of any kind we settled for a roller dog for dinner. Leighton’s was at least exotic. He had a buffalo roller dog. When we get to rapid city we are going to have a decent meal.

The park rangers made Leighton’s day today. They were amazed with his badger and least squirrel pictures and asked if he would share and if they could use them in a presentation. Apparently they aren’t easy to get. Today Leighton got his burrowing owl shots. They are hard to get. We drove and drove and drove today. Tomorrow we will leave at the crack of dawn for another day hunting animals.

Burrowing Owl

Sleeping Ram

Mule Deer

Pronghorn on the run

A fly in the eye

Sod House

It’s a tough life especially when you only get roller dogs