Friday, June 5 - Fargo to Rapid City, South Dakota

Wow. How many people would think of Plains as scenic?

The landscape continued changing as I headed west across North Dakota. Stay In FargoNearing Bismarck, where I stopped for lunch at an old downtown hotel, untamed prairie began to compete with groomed farmland as my surroundings became more arid. At Bismarck I turned south and passed through Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Indian Reservations, where farms and homesteads became even more widely scattered.

Being in this area is a bit like being at sea. The green-yellow swells seem to roll on forever in all directions. The tiny towns are so isolated that each one seems like an island, secure and self-contained in a vast ocean of hills and grass. Stopping for a stretch and a soda in Faith, South Dakota, I saw that this hamlet of 500 people had its own newspaper. The town seemed to have one of everything a small town needs: a bank, a motel, a gas station, a church, a restaurant, and even a small lake. It needed more trees, though. Throughout Plains can be seen long rows of trees planted by farmers years ago as windbreaks, but most trees around here grow in little arroyos where tiny streams collect rain from occasional thunderstorms that roll across prairie.

Finally, and quite abruptly, ridgelines of Black Hills appeared on southwestern horizon, providing some definition to a landscape that for some time now had been an infinite, undulating carpet of grass. Flying across U.S. takes long enough, but hitting road is best way to gain a true appreciation of its dimensions. Parked at eastern edge of mountains, like a miniature Denver, is Rapid City, my destination for night.

Saturday, June 6 - Rapid City to Sheridan, Wyoming Well, I've seen it. Now what?

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Rob LaGrone, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent – Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To book travel visit Jetstreams.com at www.jetstreams.com and for Beach Resorts visit Beach Booker at www.beachbooker.com

LAKE POWELL MARINAS

There are five marinas on Lake Powell, all operated by Aramark Corporation, and all are open daily to public. All marinas are land-based, except Dangling Rope Marina, which is accessible only by boat.

Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas PO Box 56909 Phoenix, AZ 85079-6909

You can rent a houseboat at any of four land-based marinas. For reservations for houseboats or accommodations, boat rentals, charters, or day lake cruises, call toll free 800/528-6154. In greater Phoenix 278-8888 or fax 602/331-5258.

Reservations office is open 7 days a week, 7:30 am to 4:40 pm Mountain Standard Time, March through October. Open Monday through Friday other months. Closed Thanksgiving weekend, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Wahweap Lodge and Marina Box 1597 Page, AZ 86040 602/645-2433 Fax: 602/645-5175

Bullfrog Resort and Marina Lake Powell, UT 84533 Fax: 801/684-2312

Halls Crossing Marina Lake Powell, UT 84533 801/684-2261 Fax: 801/684-2319

Hite Marina Lake Powell, UT 84533 801/684-2278 Fax: 801/684-2358

Dangling Rope Marina is 41 miles from Glen Canyon Dam and has no phone, and runs on solar power. It has it's own gas dock.

You boat into Padre Bay around Padre Point, from Utah, and then you are in Arizona, under Tower Butte, part of Navajo Indian Reservation. Tower Butte has identical symmetry on all four sides. From Wild Horse Mesa it rises 800 feet, its flat top three feet less than a mile above sea level.

Labyrinth Canyon winds its way from Padre Bay like a boney finger, pinching sandstone puffball canyon walls narrower and steeper. At end of canyon I hiked on miles of sandy trails through rivertine shrubs, dead animals, shade, sun, shade, sun, and like an English maze garden. other canyons that shoot off or into one we are on. But which one? I would not want to be here during a flash flood. In fact, there is no trace of earlier storms last two days, sand sucked every molecule into it's earthern lair. The sand is dry; we take our shoes off; oxide pushes between our toes like old, but still warm, campfire coals. The horizon is only up and it is an infinite turquoise and cloudless. Blakely and I hear sheep bleating, so we know we are on Navajo Indian Reservation.

Back at houseboat passing storms stirs fishing into a frenzy, and poles are hung over top and bottom decks, with every other cast snarled in someone else's line. That night we caught plenty of stripers and in morning it was channel cats on anchovies, but million dollar fish received a good conduct medal for not landing on our lines. Everyone was cursing their bad luck and that had to be most reviled fish in lake. At least we saved film. By noon everyone was getting a little sunburned so it was time for more beer and Cheetos, and by looks of some of crew, they could have cut back on both.

MILLION DOLLAR FISHING TOURNAMENT

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Kriss Hammond, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent – Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To book travel visit Jetstreams.com at www.jetstreams.com and for Beach Resorts visit Beach Booker at www.beachbooker.com