On a lonely little gravel road west of Mandan I found this rig parked in the corner of a field. As anyone visiting this site on a regular basis knows, I’m a sucker for a broken-down farmstead, a windmill, a well, or an old farm implement. I guess it’s part of North Dakota’s charm, although a wistful one at that. In my travels around the periphery of Bismarck-Mandan I’ve found many such sights, more than I’ve posted here. Gradually I’ll let ’em all out!

You don’t need to go far to find some beautiful fall foliage in Bismarck. A while back I found these leaves, and many other colorful varieties, right on Main Avenue! In fact, the blue behind them isn’t even the sky; it’s the back of the sign of the office building at the corner of Main and Mandan Street. I can’t believe I spaced the name of it…wait! It’s Tuscany Square.

One interesting thing is that the map graphic on the home page of the Bismarck Historical Society lists east-west roads as “Streets” and north-south ones as “Avenues.” For instance, there’s Washington Avenue and Sweet Street. The map is from 1883, so something must have changed in the 125 years since. Main Avenue, however, is listed on the map as “Main A”…so perhaps it has never been Main Street.

I’ve posted a few sunset photos from this vantage point: the post at the north border of Double Ditch Indian Village, perched atop the cliff. It’s a popular point of view for local photographers, and I’ve run into a few there. But it brings up the question of what this area looks like from below.

It’s been a while since I’ve been down at the bottom of these cliffs. Back in the 1980s there used to be a big sandbar island in the middle of the river here, and we’d have big parties out there in August to say goodbye to friends before everybody left for college. We’d have a generator and sound system, volleyball nets, and boats ferrying people to and from the shore. Those were the days. So I decided to find the old foot path down to the river and poke around a little before sunset.

Wow. The path has eroded some. A lot, actually. It’s at the south end of the road now, which used to be the midpoint of the park when the road looped all the way through. Despite having a few grand worth of camera gear on my back, I decided to skate down the trail anyway. I managed not to tip over and only got a little bit muddy at the bottom, where natural drainage brings water down to the river from the hills above.

Wow, I came down that wearing a pair of Airwalks? I’m braver than I thought! I figured I’d come up with a plan for getting back up the hill later, since I didn’t even have enough traction to get down gracefully. Getting back up this way seemed highly unlikely.

Of course, that’s when I noticed a trail nice enough to call wheelchair accessible coming down from the other side of the ravine! It wasn’t exactly visible from where I came down, and seems to be relatively recent since there’s a little signage area at the top, part of the “new” park. I haven’t spent much time hoofing around the park since they took the road out, so it had escaped my attention until now. At least now I know how I’m getting back up!

The water was calm that day, my friends. There were actually a lot of graceful ripples lapping at the shore, and that is a REALLY nice sound. I had my iPod in my pack, but this time I left it there. It was a nice little meditation walk this time, something I haven’t done in way too long. The sky wasn’t really doing anything of note, so I decided to head north and investigate the shoreline along the park.

The Missouri River is low right now, as you can see. I had no problem walking on recently solid ground among fallen trees and other debris, but nothing really mindblowing. I did see some beverage cans that were old enough to be the pull-tab type from the 1970s, a C02 cylinder from a fountain pop dispenser, and a rusty 55 gallon drum. There were a lot of interesting tracks, too.

Of course, this wouldn’t be Double Ditch without any of the fabled cars at the bottom of the cliff! The grass was really tall, but I spotted at least three of them. There might even be some trim pieces on a couple of these that would be worth something on eBay. Did I just give you some ideas?

Remember that post I told you about? Here’s how it looks from a hundred feet below. of course, I zoomed in so it was actually visible in the shot. Considering the condition of these cliffs, I’m going to be a little more reluctant to stand right at the edge!

About this point, the sun was a distant memory over the horizon and I was getting cold. I didn’t have any gloves, was wearing only a light jacket and could see my breath. That’s what happens sometimes with these spur of the moment trips, I guess! I worked my way back, hands stuffed firmly in my coat pockets to keep warm, and walked easily up the established trail. I cranked the heater in my truck, dodged deer all the way back into town, and called it an evening. While I didn’t really come away with any jaw dropping photos, I still call the trip a success; it’s an angle of Double Ditch I’ve been meaning to see for a long time.

I get asked a lot how in the world I can post so many photos and babble so much. I think to the old adage: “How do we do it? Volume!” Seriously, though…I carry my camera everywhere and I know where to look. This is the convergence of those two things.

This lone chimney sits on a little parcel of land south of Bismarck and is for sale if you’re interested. I’ve driven past it several times, even taken a few photos, but none of them really thrilled me. Today I think I got a slightly more interesting photo. I like the starker shadows of the fall sun, the golden grass and leaves, topped off by the dark blue skies (thanks to a polarizer filter on the lens).

The “volume” I joke about is that sometimes I’ll get several really cool shots, and just hang on to them for a while. For instance, I have lots of Fallen Farms photos (and haven’t posted any in a while…hm…) and fall foliage. I like to share them, but sometimes I just pace myself because I’m too busy being a daddy and a freelance video guy to get out with the camera on a regular basis.

Bismarck has so many places like this. Sometimes they’re better than others, and it is a matter of being there at just the right moment. These days I’m so busy I can’t begin to explain, but I take tiny moments here and there to work in a photo where I can. It may be on the way to work or back home, in between errands, or I might get up early or stay up late. But when you’ve got the photo bug, you make time!

I took some time after the University of Mary homecoming game today to venture over to the Missouri River Natural Area trail. It’s tucked next to the Interstate in Mandan, near the refinery exit. To get to the trail, however, one must go into Mandan from the east and turn right by the Bonanza restaurant. The road goes east along I-94’s westbound lane, takes a sharp left, and passes some residential neighborhoods before snaking beneath the Interstate. Right after going under the highway, turn right down the short gravel road and you’re at the trailhead. I find this the better end of the trail from which to start, since the other end involves navigating around the Memorial Bridge construction.

Next to the trailhead is a little inlet that looks quite manmade (and quite old). My friend Joe told me that this is one place where people used to drag ice out of the river way back when. It’s hard to see in this pic since I sized it down so much, but there a bunch of aged wooden pilings along the rocks as well as some metalwork and cables protruding from the dirt. I’ll get back to his part later.

I was worried that I was going to miss all the colors, but that hasn’t happened. I had a birthday party to attend today so I barely got into the trail before I had to work my way back out, but here’s a sample of some of the leaves that are turning from green to gold. The red ones I saw all looked pretty ratty, so I hope to get photos of them later on.

Back to the ice ramp. This is a shot from water level at the point where the pilings stick up from the rocks. I’m sure this was a dock of some sort, or perhaps just a platform. Obviously nature didn’t pile all these rocks here, so this area was definitely used for something in the distant past.

Here’s one of the large cables still protruding from the dirt. Oh, if only they could talk! I am going to have to poke around and see what exactly transpired at this place. Either that or I’ll ask someone who knows what they’re doing to find out for me!

There you have it…a great idea if you want a nice walk with fall colors all around you. There will be plenty of birds and deer and stuff, too! But don’t wait too long…it seems that the truly colorful part of autumn lasts about a week here in Bismarck-Mandan!

In my travels around the Bismarck-Mandan area, I have now had two occasions where I’m surprised by a well sticking out of the middle of a wheat field. I’m no farm kid, but it seems a little odd to me. Why would a hand-pump well be sticking out of a seemingly arbitrary spot in the middle of a field? Isn’t it a pain cutting around it? I guess not.

This is a different well from the one I spotted north of Bismarck early this summer. Both are logged in my GPS in case there are some dramatic skies that could benefit from being photographed with a well in the foreground!

In the spirit of the Thunderbirds eyesore and the big shiny white whatchamacallit along River Road, it looks we’ve got another monstrosity being assembled in Pioneer Park. Either someone’s a really good grant writer, or we have some skewed priorities in the Parks & Recreation department. The good news: we’ve reached the end of the path, unless they decided to work their way southward in the future!

I know it’s probably a matter of personal taste, although I haven’t encountered anyone who likes the giant blue monstrosity down by the Grant Marsh bridge. Some may argue that you can’t put a price tag on cultural “enrichment” but it looks like somebody found a way. The question is, who’s paying the bill? If we’ve got money for this kind of thing, perhaps we could work on lighting or other more usable projects along the path.

Friday night I ran to Fort Lincoln with a friend to see what the skies might do at sunset. The answer: pretty much nothing. Well, it was worth a try! On the walk back from the northeast blockhouse, I did see some rays streaking across the sky, so I grabbed this quick shot. Otherwise the night was a bust, photographically speaking, but it gave me a chance to go piloting around Mandan. Both of us are former Mandan residents from long ago, so it was fun to swap stories and remark how much the city has changed.

This is the first time all year I’ve gone to Fort Lincoln and actually been able to drive up the hill to the blockhouses! I was beginning to think they never unlock the gates to the road going up the hill. By the way, they’ve cut in a bunch of trails leading into the park. They’re suitable for mountain biking and hiking, and will not be paved. I have to take my bike down there and explore them yet this year!

All this talk of bridge safety these days reminds me of some photos I took for a post about the Memorial Bridge a while back. While repairs were underway for a couple of the piers, I spotted this nasty business along the west end of the bridge:

This is the stuff that they were NOT fixing. I don’t know if this has been addressed since Lunda fenced off the area surrounding the bridge, but it makes me nervous every time I take my family across it. Sure, they fixed the parts of the piers over the river which were turning to rubble, but even a cursory inspection of the rest of the bridge gave me some pretty scary photos.

The new bridge is expected to open in late 2009 if I remember correctly…hopefully they’re taking care of the old bridge in the mean time!