I hope this means we’re getting a new waterpark! I know this is going to be sad news for those who grew up with the water slide at Hillside Park, but it is no longer there. It had aged beyond repair and the kids had figured out how to launch over the side, so it was time for it to go. I guess the pool is staying, though.

This is all that’s left. I have heard talk about people wanting to get an aquatic center like Dickinson has, and that’d be a welcome addition to our list of recreational facilities in this town. For now I guess we’ll have to go to a hotel or the Mandan Community Center and ride the indoor slides, which are much smaller but still fun.

I sometimes bemoan the fact that many of Bismarck-Mandan’s historic buildings are falling to the wrecking ball and bulldozer (and, in some cases, a skidsteer on the second floor!). That’s why it’s important to appreciate them while we’ve got ’em. I haven’t posted many of the photos I have taken of unique local building features, but perhaps I’ll do more of that in the future. This could be akin to my “identify the statue” posts that I have done until I started running out of statues.

I left the building name intact on this one, so it should be pretty easy to find. Can you identify this building?

I highly advise against getting too close to the Lewis & Clark when it’s like this, despite any morbid urges to try working a railroad tie or two out of the neatly ordered stacks. You could find yourself wearing a riverboat on your head!

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.