7/9 Hazelton COE Campground

No photos or posting on the last two campgrounds because I found little interesting about them.  I have been making slow, but steady, progress west, and found myself in this Corps of Engineering campground yesterday.  I  really like COE campgrounds because I have never really found a bad one, and they are well taken care of.  They almost always have at least some sites with electricity and are always near a dammed-up lake.  When they build and manage a dam, they also build recreation areas that include campgrounds.

I arrived fairly early in the afternoon, but I was still surprised to find no one else camped here.  This is the non-hookup side of the park.

There is a lake in the distance, but it is several hundred feet away.

And this is the hookup area.  In this case, that means electric only.  I had to fill my water tanks at the entrance. No dump station, but it is not too far to my next stop.

I should not have any problems with quiet hours.


All set up in my site.  No pavement, but the gravel was in good condition and my site was level.  

Kind of a view of the lake. 

This is the Great Plains, and it looks like this old tree has seen a lot of history. 

They have planted quiet a few trees, but I noticed that each one has a drip irrigation tube attached to it.  

Nice to have some peace and quiet, at least.  There isn't even any road noise, but a big plus is excellent Verizon service, so I have very good internet.  Have a lot of work to catch up on, so that is very good.  Also, because of lack of trees, I have good satellite service.

Found this extra water fill station at the far end of the campground.  

Company arrived on the second day!  I am leaving tomorrow, however, when the place will be full of families.  

These little critters are very shy and tend to hide in the grass.  They are thirteen-lined ground squirrels.  They look like chipmunks, but do not have the lines on the sides of their faces that chipmunks have.  They also are a little smaller than chipmunks and are also not as cheeky--they hide in the grass or run away instead of begging for food. They also don't make a lot of noise.  They and chipmunks, squirrels, marmots, and prairie dogs are all part of the squirrel family.  See https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Spermophilus_tridecemlineatus/
 

You can see the stripes on this one.  

Definitely a squirrel-like face, but they eat plants and insects more than nuts and acorns.

This one is chewing on some clover. 

On to Theodore Roosevelt National Park tomorrow.  I was there in 2016, but had to cut my visit short then because of a kidney stone attack.  The national park is open to drive through, but they cancelled my two days in the park campground, so I am staying just one night in a commercial campground in nearby Medora, ND.  That will be enough time to walk around the town and drive through the park to see the buffalo again.