Teddy Roosevelt National Park

 Undaunted, I drove up the road a bit more and found another trailhead to stop at.  This one had more cars (though not a lot-maybe 8 or 10) and I pulled off.  Lady luck struck again.  Turns out I had stumbled onto one of the most popular spots in the park.  The hiking website I use sometimes says its the "most photographed spot in the park" and I can tell you why-its spectacular.  The trail is short, on the easy side of moderate, and the coming-on-sunset setting was fantastic.  From the trail you have views both east and west of the Little Missouri River and there were wild horses crossing the river far below when I was there.  There were various photographers and families settled at the top waiting for the sunset.  

I did the trail and hung out at the top for a few minutes but could not stay for sunset for two reasons.  First, I had not brought a flashlight and while the trail was not hard by any means, I had no interest in attempting to navigate it after dark.  Second, I still had to find my campsite and pitch my tent.  The brand new tent which had not even been taken out of the bag and tested nor the directions read.  So there was that.  Putting a tent up at 9:30 in dusk was going to be bad enough; at full dark, I just don't know...

view to the west as the sun goes down

you can't tell because they were far away but there are wild horses crossing the river down there in this photo

view to the east of the Little Missouri River

Alas, the best laid plans and all that.  I did see a wild horse by the road and stopped to take this picture of it.  I've never seen one before that I am aware of.  And, I was stopped by my first (not last) buffalo traffic jam of the trip.  Efforts to get back to the campsite before dark were all for naught...the wild creatures had a different idea.  They crossed the road, recrossed the road, milled about, nudged their younguns, brawled with each other and generally put on a good show.  The below picture is dated Aug 10 9:25 pm.  Still light out, but hopes of getting back to the campsite with enough light to efficiently put up the tent were fading fast.

I did eventually make it back, found the campground, checked in, found my campsite and set up the tent.  It was not pretty.  By the time I tossed my sleeping bag in there I was D-O-N-E.  Long day of driving, couple hours of exploring the park and hiking, a battle of wills with a reluctant tent that I had never used before and the specter of doing it all again the next day (ie, putting up the tent...it was a struggle...the directions said it was better to have two people when putting the tent up...um, it was just me?  more to come on the tent later) made me a little cranky.  Good thing I was alone this night...I was not in a good mood at that point.  Such a struggle it was to get the tent up that I ended up bailing on the rain fly altogether.  Fingers crosses, I left it laying on the ground between the car and the tent and crawled into my sleeping bag under the stars.  Turns out, that was a good idea-I could look up and see the night sky in all of its glory all night long.  Eventually, with the help of Jane Austin's Pride and Predjudice (on the reread, better than ever!), I was lulled into a tree swaying, light breeze, star gazing, delightfully comfortable great night's sleep.  Here's my view at 7:30 am when I woke up ready to face Day 2 of the Solo Yellowstone Trip 2020.  Who needs a rain fly?